Information processing apparatus, control method, and storage medium

ABSTRACT

[Object] To provide an information processing apparatus, a control method and a storage medium through which emotional values of objects can be numerically expressed on the basis of an interaction between the objects.[Solution] An information processing system including: a detection unit that detects information related to an interaction between a first object and a second object; and a generation unit that is capable of generating an emotion value of the first object and an emotion value of the second object on the basis of the information related to the interaction.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/522,834, filed Apr. 28, 2017, which is a National Stage ofInternational Application No. PCT/JP2015/072053, filed Aug. 4, 2015,which claims priority to Japanese Application No. 2014-227004, filedNov. 7, 2014. The entire contents of each of these documents areincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus, acontrol method, and a storage medium.

BACKGROUND ART

Recently, emotions of people at certain times have been estimated frombio-information and the like and used for content data search,information recommendation and the like.

For example, Patent Literature 1 below discloses a technology forobtaining an emotion parameter indicating an emotional degree on thebasis of bio-information such as heartbeat and blood pressure andconverting the emotion parameter into one-dimensional emotion money.

CITATION LIST Patent Literature

Patent Literature 1: JP 2005-124909A

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION Technical Problem

However, in the Patent Literature 1 above and previous technologies,human emotions (pleasant/unpleasant) were estimated on the basis ofbio-information mainly and virtual psychological states of articles werenot mentioned.

For example, even for the same item, a user may have different thoughtsand affections with respect to the article in a case in which the usercarefully uses the article with affection and a case in which the userroughly handles the article. However, there was no technology formeasuring this and objectively notifying a third party of themeasurement result.

In this manner, articles may have individual values in addition tofunctions and designs thereof even when the articles are identicalitems.

Accordingly, the present disclosure proposes an information processingapparatus, a control method and a storage medium through which emotionalvalues of objects can be numerically expressed on the basis of aninteraction between the objects.

Solution to Problem

According to the present disclosure, there is proposed an informationprocessing system including: a detection unit that detects informationrelated to an interaction between a first object and a second object;and a generation unit that is capable of generating an emotion value ofthe first object and an emotion value of the second object on the basisof the information related to the interaction.

According to the present disclosure, there is proposed a control methodincluding: detecting information related to an interaction between afirst object and a second object; and being capable of generating anemotion value of the first object and an emotion value of the secondobject on the basis of the information related to the interaction.

According to the present disclosure, there is proposed a storage mediumhaving a program stored therein, the program causing a computer tofunction as: a detection unit that detects information related to aninteraction between a first object and a second object; and a generationunit that is capable of generating an emotion value of the first objectand an emotion value of the second object on the basis of theinformation related to the interaction.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to the present disclosure, as described above, it is possibleto numerically express emotional values of objects on the basis of aninteraction between the objects.

Note that the effects described above are not necessarily limitative.With or in the place of the above effects, there may be achieved any oneof the effects described in this specification or other effects that maybe grasped from this specification.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an overview of an informationprocessing system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration ofa sensing device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration ofan emotion server according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram illustrating an operation process of aninformation processing system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the entire configuration of apersonal credit information provision system according to a firstapplication example.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration ofa personal credit information provision server according to the firstapplication example.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an example of data of an object DB of anemotion server according to the first application example.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of an example of data of an emotioninformation DB of the emotion server according to the first applicationexample.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a credit ranking display processaccording to the first application example.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of an example of a credibility ranking screenaccording to the first application example.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a process of displaying credibilityinformation on each object attribute according to the first applicationexample.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram of calculation of a relative emotionvalue of a target person with respect to a house according to the firstapplication example.

FIG. 13 is an illustration of an example of a credibility informationdisplay screen with respect to each object attribute according to thefirst application example.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a chronological credibility displayprocess according to the first application example.

FIG. 15 is an illustration of examples of a chronological credibilitydisplay screen according to the first application example.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram of the entire configuration of anauction system according to a second application example.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an actionserver according to the second application example.

FIG. 18 is an illustration of an example of data of exhibited itemsstored in an item and user information DB of the action server accordingto the second application example.

FIG. 19 is an illustration of an example of data of an emotioninformation DB of an emotion server according to the second applicationexample.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating a list display process depending onemotion values of exhibited items according to the second applicationexample.

FIG. 21 is an illustration of an example of a list display screendepending on emotion values of exhibited items according to the secondapplication example.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart illustrating a process of displaying detailedinformation about emotion values of exhibited items according to thesecond application example.

FIG. 23 is an explanatory diagram of calculation of relative/absoluteemotion values of exhibited items according to the second applicationexample.

FIG. 24 is an illustration of an example of a display screen of detailedinformation about an exhibited item according to the second applicationexample.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart illustrating a process of displaying detailedinformation about emotion values of an exhibitor according to the secondapplication example.

FIG. 26 is an illustration of an example of a display screen of detailedinformation about emotion values of an exhibitor according to the secondapplication example.

FIG. 27 is an explanatory diagram of the entire configuration of anenvironment adjustment system according to a third application example.

FIG. 28 is an explanatory diagram of an example of environmentadjustment by a moving object according to the third applicationexample.

FIG. 29 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration ofa moving object according to the third application example.

FIG. 30 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration ofan environment adjustment server according to the third applicationexample.

FIG. 31 is a flowchart illustrating an environment adjustment processaccording to the third application example.

FIG. 32 is a flowchart illustrating a coverage range change processaccording to the third application example.

FIG. 33 is an illustration of an example of interaction evaluation dataaccording to the present embodiment.

FIG. 34 is an illustration of an example of other data of interactionevaluation according to the third application example.

FIG. 35 is an explanatory diagram of the entire configuration of atelepresence system according to a fourth application example.

FIG. 36 is an explanatory diagram of an example of display of a shojiimage according to the fourth application example.

FIG. 37 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration ofa communication control device according to the fourth applicationexample.

FIG. 38 is a flowchart illustrating a telepresence control processaccording to the fourth application example.

FIG. 39 is a flowchart illustrating an opening degree setting operationprocess according to the fourth application example.

FIG. 40 is an illustration of an example of interaction evaluation dataaccording to the fourth application example.

FIG. 41 is an illustration of an example of data obtained by extractingdata used for emotion value calculation from the example of data ofinteraction evaluation values illustrated in FIG. 40.

FIG. 42 is an explanatory diagram of the entire configuration of apresence reproduction system according to a fifth application example.

FIG. 43 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration ofa reproduction information generation device according to the fifthapplication example.

FIG. 44 is a flowchart illustrating a presence information generationprocess according to the fifth application example.

FIG. 45 is an explanatory diagram of subject recognition according tothe fifth application example.

FIG. 46 is an illustration of an example of interaction evaluation dataaccording to the fifth application example.

FIG. 47 is an illustration of an example of data extracted from theexample of interaction evaluation data illustrated in FIG. 46 and usedfor emotion value calculation.

FIG. 48 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration ofa reproduction control device according to the fifth applicationexample.

FIG. 49 is a flowchart illustrating a playback process using emotionvalues according to the fifth application example.

FIG. 50 is an illustration of examples of image effects arranged tocorrespond to respective subjects depending on emotion values accordingto the fifth application example.

MODE(S) FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, (a) preferred embodiment(s) of the present disclosure willbe described in detail with reference to the appended drawings. In thisspecification and the appended drawings, structural elements that havesubstantially the same function and structure are denoted with the samereference numerals, and repeated explanation of these structuralelements is omitted.

Description will be given in the following order.

1. Overview of information processing system according to embodiment ofpresent disclosure2. Basic configurations and operation processes2-1. Sensing device2-2. Emotion server2-3. Operation process3. Application examples3-1. Personal credit information provision system3-2. Auction system3-3. Environment adjustment system3-4. Telepresence system3-5. Presence reproduction system

4. Conclusion 1. Overview of Information Processing System According toEmbodiment of Present Disclosure

First of all, an overview of an information processing system 100according to an embodiment of the present disclosure illustrated in FIG.1 will be described. As illustrated in FIG. 1, in the informationprocessing system 100 according to the present embodiment, all of aperson and articles are defined as objects and a sensing device 1 (10Ato 10D) for detecting an inter-object interaction is provided on each ofthe objects (Obj.A to Obj.D). For example, a sensing device 1A realizedby a wearable device such as a watch type device is attached to a personObj.A. In addition, a sensing device 1B capable of detectingopening/closing of doors, entrance/exit of people, the repair of a houseand the like is provided in a house Obj.B. Further, a sensing device ICcapable of detecting mileage, usage count, carefulness of driving, carwashing and the like is provided in a car Obj.C. In addition, a sensingdevice 1D capable of detecting usage time, storage condition, subjecttype, water leakage, impact, number of maintenance operations and thelike is attached to a camera Obj.D.

An interaction detected by the sensing device 1 is transmitted to anemotion server 2 through a network 3. For example, interactions(opening/closing of a door, repair, driving, storage and the like)performed by the person Obj.A with respect to the house Obj.B, the carObj.C and the camera Obj.D are respectively detected by the sensingdevices 1A to 1D and transmitted to the emotion server 2. Specifically,when the person has performed a certain interaction with respect to thehouse, respective interactions (an interaction performed on the otherobject and an interaction performed by the other object) are detected bythe sensing device 1A on the side of the person and the sensing device1B on the side of the house. Further, detected interactions are notlimited to interactions between a person and an article and aninteraction between articles may be detected.

The emotion server 2 accumulates interactions received from the sensingdevice 1 and analyzes the interactions to calculate an emotion value ofeach object. Emotion values calculated by the emotion server 2 are usedfor various services. Meanwhile, since there is a case in whichnecessary emotion values differ depending on properties of services, theemotion server 2 transmits an evaluation value numerically expressingevaluation of each interaction to each service, and an emotion value maybe calculated on the basis of an interaction evaluation value through apredetermined calculation method on a service side.

In this way, it is possible to define all of persons and articles asobjects and provide an emotion value corresponding to a new indexnumerically expressing a value of each object on the basis of aninteraction between objects in the information processing system 100according to the present embodiment. Usefulness of such emotion valueswill be described below as a background of the present disclosure.

(Background)

Mature societies will require new indices of value economy due to therecent excessive expansion of global economy based on neo liberalistmarket principles. Specifically, an “emotional value” of an article innew manufacturing is under discussion. In general, deep thought,intention, background, technology and the like put into an article by amanufacturer are called emotional values and actions of people of eachregion using this are performed. Further, handling of an article by auser with affection is an invisible special value of the article and maybe a value exceeding its monetary value. However, such “emotionalvalues” were not used in the domain of information science in the past.

In this regard, the era of Internet of Things (IoT) in which things areconnected has dawned according to recent developments in deviceminiaturization, battery technology and network technology. In thefuture of this era, it can be assumed that the era of connection of anarticle and a person without discrimination (an article that has passeda Turing test interacts with a person) has come. In this case, it ispossible to define correlation of “emotional values” of a person and anarticle with a history of all interactions without discriminationbetween people and articles (including services).

The present embodiment proposes emotion values numerically expressingpseudo “emotional values” of persons and articles in view of the above.Since an emotional value is represented by a multi-dimensional vector,it is considered that the dimension is decreased or the vector isconverted into a simple scalar value and used such that the vector iseasily handled to optimize the emotional value for each service or itemand use the optimized emotional value. It is anticipated that an emotionvalue will become a new index of value economy and economic conceptalong with money in the future. Accordingly, functions of storage(accumulation), exchange medium (a function of mediating exchange of anarticle A and an article B) and measure of values of people and articles(emotional values are given to all items and services and the value ofan article is determined by monetary and emotional values) are expectedwith respect to the emotion value.

The overview of the information processing system 100 according to thepresent embodiment has been described above. Next, configurations of thesensing device 1 and the emotion server 2 included in the informationprocessing system 100 and operation processes of the informationprocessing system 100 will be sequentially described.

2. Basic Configurations 2-1. Sensing Device

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration ofthe sensing device 1 according to the present embodiment. As illustratedin FIG. 2, the sensing device 1 includes a sensor 11, an interactionextraction unit 12 and a communication unit 13.

(Sensor)

The sensor 11 has a function of sensing an interaction between objects.For example, the sensor 11 is realized by a humidity sensor, atemperature sensor, a vibration sensor, an infrared sensor, a camera, atactile sensor, a gyro sensor, an illumination sensor, a human sensor,an atmosphere sensor (e.g., a dust sensor and a pollutant sensor), aspeed sensor, a count measurement value or the like.

(Interaction Extraction Unit)

The interaction extraction unit 12 functions as a detection unit fordetecting information related to an interaction between a first objectand a second object on the basis of sensing data extracted from thesensor 1. For example, the interaction extraction unit 12 may extractinteractions such as the number of times a door is opened/closed,impact/strength of opening/closing and entrance/exit of a person on thebasis of sensing data of a sensor that senses opening/closing of doors.

Further, the interaction extraction unit 12 may extract interactionssuch as the repair and maintenance of a target object on the basis ofsensing data of a sensor that senses that the target object has beendisassembled, a reset process has been performed, a failure state hasbeen fixed (errorless), parts have been changed and the like.

In addition, when a target object is a car, a bicycle, a motor cycle orthe like, the interaction extraction unit 12 may extract interactions ofthe target object, such as the mileage, usage count, carefulness ofdriving and car washing, on the basis of sensing data of a sensor thatsenses a distance measurement value, an engine RPM measurement value,tire change frequency, brake timing, contamination, positioninformation, fuel refill frequency and the like.

Further, the interaction extraction unit 12 may extract interactions ofa target object, such as a preference degree, an affection degree and astorage state, on the basis of sensing data of a sensor that senses astart time, a start timing, a mounting state, ambient air, humidity, atemperature, water leakage, impact and the like.

(Communication Unit)

The communication unit 13 transmits information related to aninteraction extracted by the interaction extraction unit 12 to theemotion server 2 through the network 3.

The aforementioned sensing device 1 is equipped with a micro-computerincluding a central processing unit (CPU), a read only memory (ROM), arandom access memory (RAM) and a nonvolatile memory to control eachcomponent of the sensing device 1.

2-2. Configuration of Emotion Server

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration ofthe emotion server 2 according to the present embodiment. As illustratedin FIG. 3, the emotion server 2 includes a communication unit 21, acontroller 20, an object DB 22 and an emotion information DB 24.

(Communication Unit)

The communication unit 21 receives information (referred to hereinafteras interaction information) related to an interaction from the sensingdevice 1 attached to/mounted on each object (person or article) througha network. In addition, the communication unit 21 transmits interactionevaluation stored in the emotion information DB 24 or an emotion valuecalculated by an emotion value calculation unit 20 e depending on therequest of an external device.

(Controller)

The controller 20 controls each component of the emotion server 2.Furthermore, the controller 20 is realized by a micro-computer includinga CPU, a ROM, a RAM and a nonvolatile memory. In addition, thecontroller 20 according to the present embodiment serves as aninteraction storage controller 20 a, an evaluation unit 20 b, an objectmanagement unit 20 c, a related object search unit 20 d, and an emotionvalue calculation unit 20 e.

The interaction storage controller 20 a controls interaction informationreceived from a sensing device 1 attached to/mounted on an object to bestored in the emotion information DB 24.

The evaluation unit 20 b evaluates interactions stored in the emotioninformation DB 24. While an interaction evaluation method is notparticularly limited, for example, the evaluation unit 20 b performscalculation and evaluation according to a standard decided with acertain evaluation index with respect to objects that perform/receiveinteractions and assigns scores thereto, specifically, in the range of−1.0 to 1.0. The evaluation results are correlated with the interactionsand stored in the emotion information DB 24.

The object management unit 20 c performs management such asregistration, change and deletion of information about objects stored inthe object DB 22.

The related object search unit 20 d searches the object DB 22 and theemotion information DB 24 for an object for which an interaction isgenerated with respect to a requested object ID from the external deviceas a related object.

The emotion value calculation unit 20 e calculates an emotion value ofan object on the basis of emotion values of interaction informationaccumulated in the emotion information DB 24. A detailed emotion valuecalculation method will be described below.

(Object DB)

The object DB 22 is a storage unit that stores an object ID of eachobject. In addition, the object DB 22 stores various types ofinformation about objects, such as product names, product types, makerIDs, model numbers, and manufacturing date and time, in addition toobject IDs.

(Emotion Information DB)

The emotion information DB 24 is a storage unit that stores aninteraction between objects and evaluation of the interaction.

2-3. Operation Processes

Next, an operation process of the information processing system 100according to the present embodiment will be described with reference toFIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram illustrating an operation processof the information processing system 100 according to the presentembodiment.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, first of all, when an object A on which asensing device 1A is provided performs a certain interaction withrespect to an object B on which a sensing device 1B is provided, theinteraction extraction unit 12 of the sensing device 1A acquires theinteraction in step S103 and then transmits the acquired interaction tothe emotion server 2 through the communication unit 13 in step S106.

In addition, the same process is performed by the sensing device 1Bprovided on the object B on which the interaction has been performed.That is, the interaction extraction unit 12 of the sensing device 1Bacquires the interaction in step S109 and then transmits the acquiredinteraction to the emotion server 2 through the communication unit 13 instep S112.

Accordingly, when the interaction is performed between the objects, theinteraction is acquired from both objects and the acquired interactionsare transmitted to the emotion server 2.

Then, the interaction storage controller 20 a of the emotion server 2stores the interaction transmitted from each sensing device 1 in theemotion information DB 24 in step S15 and then performs interactionevaluation through the evaluation unit 20 b in step S118. Further,interaction evaluation by the evaluation unit 20 b is correlated withthe interaction and stored in the emotion information DB 24.

In addition, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e of the emotionserver 2 calculates emotion values of the objects on the basis ofinteraction evaluation as necessary in step S121.

The operation process according to the present embodiment has beendescribed above. It is considered that an emotion value of an objectcalculated on the basis of interaction history collected by the emotionserver 2 of the present embodiment is used for various services as a newindex indicating the value of the object. Hereinafter, various servicesystems using emotion values according to the present embodiment will bedescribed using a plurality of application examples.

3. Application Examples 3-1. Personal Credit Information ProvisionSystem

First of all, a case in which an emotion value is regarded ascredibility (trust) and used in a personal credit information provisionsystem 101 will be described as a first application example withreference to FIGS. 5 to 15.

Conventionally, credibility calculated from assets, liabilities,duration of credit card contract and the like has been provided as acredit information provision service that provides personal credibility.In contrast, a personal emotion value is used as credibility informationin the present embodiment. Further, it is possible to visualizecredibility of a person using various measures by filtering a history ofinteractions with objects related to the person so far on a specificcondition (time or object attributes). For example, the personality of aperson, such that someone had bad conduct and roughly handled articlesin the past but now is a good person who carefully handles articles,that someone drives a car recklessly while carefully handling a personalcomputer, or the like, is represented as an emotion value.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the entire configuration of thepersonal credit information provision system 101 according to the firstapplication example. As illustrated in FIG. 5, the personal creditinformation provision system 101 includes a personal credit informationprovision server 4 and the emotion server 2.

The emotion server 2 acquires interaction information from the userObj.A who is a member of the personal credit information provisionsystem 101, the house Obj.B, the car Obj.C and the camera Obj.D withwhich the user Obj.A usually performs interactions.

Further, the user Obj.A illustrated in FIG. 5 and a user are correlatedwith unique IDs and registered when they are registered as members inthe personal credit information provision system 101.

Here, a case in which the user acquires credit information of the userObj.A is assumed. The user designates search conditions such as the ID(i.e., object ID) of the user Obj.A and, as necessary, a period of time(e.g., start time or end time) and attributes of related objects (e.g.,item categories and maker names) and requests the personal creditinformation provision server 4 to display credit information of the userObj.A, as illustrated in FIG. 5.

The personal credit information provision server 4 acquires emotionvalues from the emotion server 2 on the basis of the ID of the userObj.A and the search conditions (a period of time, attributes of relatedobjects, etc.) depending on the request from the user. In this case,emotion values of related objects (the house Obj.B, the car Obj.C andthe camera Obj.D) having interactions performed with respect to the userObj.A may also be acquired.

In addition, the personal credit information provision server 4 providesthe credibility information of the user Obj.A to the user on the basisof acquired emotion values. When the search conditions such as a periodof time, attributes of related objects and the like are not designated,comprehensive credibility information of the user Obj.A is displayed.Further, when a period of time is designated, credibility information ofthe user Obj.A in the designated period of time is displayed. Inaddition, when attributes of related objects are designated, credibilityinformation depending on interactions with objects that match thedesignated object attributes from among objects related to the objectObj.A is displayed.

Furthermore, a credibility information display method may includedisplaying emotion values themselves as credibility values orvisualizing emotion values by expressing them as a graph or a bar chart.

The overview of the personal credit information provision system 101according to the first application example has been described above.Meanwhile, the user may not join the same personal credit informationprovision system 101 that the user Obj.A joined and may acquire thecredit information of the user Obj.A using a credit company, forexample. In this case, a management server (not shown) of the creditcompany accesses the personal credit information provision server 4 ofthe personal credit information provision system 101 to acquire thecredit information of the user Obj.A.

(3-1-1. Configuration)

Next, a configuration of the personal credit information provisionserver 4 included in the personal credit information provision system101 will be described with reference to FIG. 6.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configurationof the personal credit information provision server 4 according to thepresent embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the personal creditinformation provision server 4 includes a controller 40, a communicationunit 41 and an item and user information DB (database) 42.

(Communication Unit)

The communication unit 41 is connected to a terminal (not shown) of auser through a network, receives a request of the user and transmitscredit information to the user depending on the request. Further, thecommunication unit 41 is connected to the emotion server 2 through anetwork and acquires an emotion value of a target object and emotionvalues of related objects.

(Controller)

The controller 40 controls each component of the personal creditinformation provision server 4. Further, the controller 40 is realizedby a micro-computer including a CPU, a ROM, a RAM and a nonvolatilememory. In addition, the controller 40 according to the presentembodiment functions as a related item search unit 40 a, an emotionvalue request unit 40 b, a result generation unit 40 c, a displaycontroller 40 d and an object management unit 40 e.

The related item search unit 40 a searches the item and user informationDB 42 for items related to a check target person designated by a user.Items related to the check target person are items previously associatedwith the check target person as items owned by the check target person,for example.

The emotion value request unit 40 b requests an emotion value of thecheck target person designated by the user from the emotion server 2.Specifically, the emotion value request unit 40 b transmits, to theemotion server 2 through the communication unit 41, an object ID of thecheck target person and search conditions (a period of time, attributesof related objects, object IDs of the related objects, etc.) when thesearch conditions are present.

The result generation unit 40 c generates a result of checking ofcredibility of the check target person on the basis of the emotion valueof the check target person, acquired by the emotion value request unit40 b from the emotion server 2. Specifically, the result generation unit40 c generates a result screen displaying credibility information of thecheck target person, for example.

The display controller 40 d controls the result screen generated by theresult generation unit 40 c to be displayed through a user terminal of arequest source. For example, the display controller 40 d controlsinformation for displaying the result screen to be transmitted to theuser terminal through the communication unit 41.

The object management unit 40 e performs management such asregistration, modification and deletion of information about items andusers (examples of objects) stored in the item and user information DB42.

(Item and User Information DB)

The item and user information DB 42 is a storage unit storinginformation about items and users. A user is a user registered as amember in the personal credit information provision system 101, forexample. Further, item and user information includes object IDs of eachitem and each user.

The configuration of the personal credit information provision server 4according to the present application example has been described above.Meanwhile, the configuration of the emotion server 2 included in thepersonal credit information provision system 101 has been described withreference to FIG. 3 and thus description thereof is omitted here.

[Example of Data Configuration]

Next, an example of data of the object DB 22 of the emotion server 2 andan example of data of the emotion information DB 24 used to calculateemotion values used in the personal credit information provision system101 will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an example of data of the object DB 22 ofthe emotion server 2 according to the first application example. ObjectIDs for identifying respective objects, object types, maker IDs, modelnumbers, serial numbers and manufacture dates and times (objectgeneration dates and times) are correlated and stored in the object DB22 of the emotion server 2, as illustrated in FIG. 7.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of an example of data of the emotioninformation DB 24 of the emotion server 2 according to the firstapplication example. Information about an interaction generated betweenobjects is stored in the emotion information DB 24. When an interactionis generated between objects, the interaction is detected by the objectsof both sides, as described above. In the example of data illustrated inFIG. 8, a data stream of interaction information generated in eachobject is created for each object. Here, with respect to the datastream, a counterpart object when the interaction is generated is calleda related object.

Object IDs of objects for which interactions have been generated,interaction dates and times and periods, related object IDs, interactiontypes, details of interactions, and interaction evaluation values arecorrelated and stored in the emotion information DB 24 of the emotionserver 2, as illustrated in FIG. 8.

For example, in the first line of the example of data illustrated inFIG. 8, a person having object ID: 18000555 performs an interaction of“driving” with respect to a car having object ID: 5505 on 21 Jun. 2000,details of the interaction are “access/brake operations: careful,steering wheel operation: slow,” and an interaction evaluation value of1 is given to the interaction. Further, in the second line, the carhaving object ID: 5505 receives an interaction of “driving” from theperson having object ID: 18000555 on 21 Jun. 2000, details of theinteraction are “fuel efficiency: good, brake wear: small,” and aninteraction evaluation value of 1 is given to the interaction. In thisway, an interaction performed by an object on one side with respect toan object on the other side may be sensed by both objects.

Sensed interaction types may be change of ownership, purchase, exchange,maintenance, cleaning and the like in addition to the aforementioneddriving, as illustrated in FIG. 8.

Regarding an interaction of driving, when a person sitting on a driver'sseat is recognized by the sensor 11 attached to a car, for example, andmovement of the car is sensed while the person is on the driver's seat,the fact that the car is driven by the person sitting on the driver'sseat is sensed.

For an interaction of maintenance, the fact that the owner of a househas performed maintenance on the house may be detected on the basis ofrecords of vibration and sounds sensed by the sensor 11 provided in thehouse, a picture of a camera (an example of the sensor 11) provided ineach place of the house and motion analysis through the sensor 11attached to the body of a user, and additionally reference to records ina registered reform company server, and the like, for example.

(3-1-2. Display Process)

Next, a display process of the personal credit information provisionsystem 101 will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 to 15.

[Credit Ranking Display]

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a credit ranking display processaccording to the first application example. As illustrated in FIG. 9,first of all, a range of check targets persons is designated by a userin step S203. Specifically, a request to the personal credit informationprovision server 4 for checking credibility of a target person isperformed through a user terminal.

Then, the emotion value request unit 40 b of the personal creditinformation provision server 4 requests an emotion value of the targetperson from the emotion server 2 on the basis of an object ID of thetarget person in step S206. The object ID of the target person may bedesignated by the user or acquired from the item and user information DB42. Otherwise, the object ID of the target person may be acquired fromthe object DB 22 on the side of the emotion server 2 depending on thename and the like of the target person designated by the personal creditinformation provision server 4.

Subsequently, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e of the emotionserver 2 calculates an emotion value on the basis of an interactionevaluation value correlated with the object ID of the designated targetperson in step S209. For example, the emotion value calculation unit 20e calculates a total emotion value of the target person based on a totalsum of evaluation values of interactions between the target person andother objects. Otherwise, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e maycalculate the total emotion value of the target person based on anaverage of evaluation values of interactions between the target personand other objects, or perform chronological weighting and then calculatethe total emotion value based on a total sum or an average.

When emotion values of a plurality of target persons are requested, theaforementioned steps S206 and S209 are repeated until calculation ofemotion values of all target persons is finished (S212).

Thereafter, when the emotion values of all target persons have beencalculated (“Yes” in S212), the result generation unit 40 c of thepersonal credit information provision server 4 regards the emotionvalues as credibility, sorts the target persons and generates acredibility ranking screen in step S215. Here, the result generationunit 40 c generates a ranking screen based on total credibility of thetarget person.

Here, an example of the credibility ranking screen is illustrated inFIG. 10. As illustrated in FIG. 10, check target persons are displayedin the order based on personal total credibility in a ranking screen 45.Specifically, the ranking screen 45 includes target person informationboxes 46 a, 46 b and 46 c which are arranged in the descending order ofcredibility. The target person information boxes 46 a, 46 b and 46 cinclude the names of target persons and star indicators indicatingranking depending on credibility.

Further, numerical values (i.e., emotion values) of credibilitycorresponding to a basis of ranking may be displayed in the targetperson information boxes 46 a, 46 b and 46 c. In addition, when an arrow461 included in the target person information box 46 c is selected, forexample, credibility information on each object attribute of a targetperson ΔΔΔΔ is displayed. Display of credibility information on eachobject attribute will be described below with reference to FIGS. 11 to13. Further, when a target person name 462 included in the target personinformation box 46 c is selected, for example, chronological credibilityinformation on the target person ΔΔΔΔ is displayed. Display ofchronological credibility information will be described below withreference to FIGS. 14 and 15.

Referring back to FIG. 9, the display controller 40 d controls theresult (ranking screen) generated by the result generation unit 40 c tobe displayed through a user terminal of a request source in step S218.

[Display of Credibility Information on Each Object Attribute]

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a process of displaying credibilityinformation on each object attribute according to the first applicationexample. As illustrated in FIG. 11, first of all, the personal creditinformation provision server 4 requests an emotion value from theemotion server 2 on the basis of the object ID of a target person instep S223.

Then, the related object search unit 20 d of the emotion server 2acquires an object ID (related object ID) of a related item associatedwith the object ID of the target person in step S226. Here, the relateditem associated with the object ID of the target person refers toanother object (referred to as a related object) having an interactiongenerated with respect to the target person. Further, the related objectsearch unit 20 d may search for other objects having interactionsgenerated with respect to the target person for an object that matches adesignated object attribute (i.e., object type) on the basis of theobject attribute designated by a user and included in search conditions.

Subsequently, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e of the emotionserver 2 acquires an interaction evaluation value correlated with therelated object ID from the emotion information DB 24 in step S229.

Thereafter, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e calculates anemotion value of the related item on the basis of the interactionevaluation value of the related item in step S231. Here, the calculatedemotion value is a relative emotion value between the target person andthe related item. Hereinafter, an example of calculation of an emotionvalue of a related item will be described with reference to FIG. 12.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram of calculation of a relative emotionvalue of a target person with reference to a house according to thefirst application example. As illustrated in FIG. 12, first of all, onlyinformation on an interaction performed by the target person (object ID:18000555) with respect to the house (object ID: 11401) is extracted fromthe emotion information DB 24. Then, the emotion value calculation unit20 e calculates a relative emotion value between the target person andthe house based on a total sum of the product of the quotient of aninitial evaluation value divided by elapsed years and a predeterminedweighting factor and the sum of the products of the quotients ofevaluation values of each maintenance divided by respective maintenanceintervals and a predetermined weighting factor on the basis of theextracted interaction information, as illustrated in FIG. 12.

Referring back to FIG. 11, when there are a plurality of related items,the aforementioned steps S229 and S231 are repeated until calculation ofemotion values of all related items is finished (S234).

Subsequently, when calculation of emotion values of all related itemsare finished (“Yes” in S234), the result generation unit 40 c of thepersonal credit information provision server 4 regards the relativeemotion values of the related items acquired by the emotion valuerequest unit 40 b from the emotion server 2 as credibility and generatesa display screen of credibility information on each object attribute.Then, the display controller 40 d controls the display screen ofcredibility information on each object attribute to be displayed througha user terminal of a request source.

Here, an example of the display screen of credibility information oneach object attribute is illustrated in FIG. 13. The target personinformation box 46 c of the ranking screen 45 illustrated in 10 isswitched to a display screen 47 of credibility information on eachobject attribute illustrated in FIG. 13 when the arrow 461 included inthe target person information box 46 c of the ranking screen 45illustrated in 10 is selected, and relative emotion values based oninteraction evaluation values between the target person ΔΔΔΔ and otherobjects as credibility are displayed.

As illustrated in FIG. 13, a credibility information display screen 47 bwith respect to a car attribute and a credibility information displayscreen 47 c with respect to a camera attribute may be displayed inaddition to a credibility information display screen 47 a with respectto a house attribute, for example. Furthermore, credibility may beexpressed by a graph and the like, and advice depending on credibilityis also displayed. Accordingly, in search for a counterpart for homestay, room sharing or car sharing, and the like, for example, it ispossible to individually recognize degrees of credibility (manner ofhandling articles) with respect to attributes of articles in addition tototal credibility of the counterpart.

[Chronological Credibility Display]

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a chronological credibility displayprocess. As illustrated in FIG. 14, first of all, the personal creditinformation provision server 4 requests an emotion value from theemotion server 2 on the basis of an object ID of a target person in stepS243.

Then, the related object search unit 20 d of the emotion server 2acquires an object ID (related object ID) of a related item associatedwith the object ID of the target person in step S246. Here, the relateditem associated with the object ID of the target person refers to anobject (also referred to as a related object) having an interactiongenerated with respect to the target person.

The emotion value calculation unit 20 e chronologically classifiesinteractions of the target person with respect to one related object IDand acquires chronological evaluation values of the target person instep S249.

Subsequently, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e calculateschronological emotion values between the target person and the relatedobject on the basis of the evaluation values in step S251. Here, theemotion value calculation unit 20 e may acquire chronological evaluationvalues based on a total sum of chronological interaction evaluationvalues, an average value thereof, a total sum/average value after thechronological interaction evaluation values have been weighted, or thelike.

Then, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e adds the chronologicalemotion values of the target person to acquire a total emotion value.

Thereafter, when there are a plurality of related items, theaforementioned steps S249 and S251 are repeated until calculation ofemotion values of all related items is finished (S257).

When calculation of the emotion values of all related items is finished(“Yes” in S257), the result generation unit 40 c of the personal creditinformation provision server 4 regards the emotion values acquired bythe emotion value request unit 40 b from the emotion server 2 ascredibility and generates a display screen of chronological credibilityinformation of the target person in step S260. Then, the displaycontroller 40 d controls the generated display screen of thechronological credibility information of the target person to bedisplayed through a user terminal of a request source.

Here, examples of the display screen of the chronological credibilityinformation of the target person are illustrated in FIG. 15. The targetperson information box 46 c of the ranking screen 45 illustrated in FIG.10A is switched to a credibility information display screen 48 shown onthe left in FIG. 15 when the target person name 462 included in thetarget person information box 46 c of the ranking screen 45 illustratedin FIG. 10 is selected, and current credibility of the target personΔΔΔΔ is displayed. Further, when a chronology display button 481 of thecredibility information display screen 48 is selected, the screenswitches to a chronological credibility information display screen 49shown on the right in FIG. 16. The chronological credibility informationdisplay screen 49 displays chronological credibility of the targetperson with respect to all articles (total chronological credibility).Further, chronological credibility information displayed on thechronological credibility information display screen 49 is not limitedto chronological credibility with respect to all articles as illustratedin FIG. 15, and the chronological credibility information display screen49 may display chronological credibility with respect to each objectattribute.

The personal credit information provision system 101 according to thefirst application example has been described above. Meanwhile, althoughcredibility ranking of people is displayed in FIG. 10, the presentapplication example is not limited thereto and, for example, credibilityranking in which people and articles are mixed may be displayed. Insearch for a helper, for example, when a check target is designated as“helper,” ranking of both a person and an article (robot) may bedisplayed.

3-2. Auction System

Next, a case in which emotion values are considered to indicate trust ofan exhibitor, an intention about an exhibited item, carefulness of ahandled side and the like and used in an auction system 102 will bedescribed as a second application example with reference to FIGS. 16 to26.

Since an article used by a certain user is exhibited at an auction, ingeneral, it is desirable for users that a price be decided on the basisof an emotional value of the article calculated from a relationshipbetween the user and the article. Meanwhile, an emotional valueaccording to the present embodiment may be used as a basis of trust of auser who exhibits an article (exhibitor). In the present embodiment, anemotional value may be converted to a value called “emotion value” andused. Further, the trust of an exhibitor and his or her carefulness ofhandling may be determined with reference to whether the exhibitor is aperson who usually handles articles carefully or roughly by referring tointeraction evaluation values with respect to articles other than theexhibited article.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram of the entire configuration of theauction system 102 according to the second application example. Asillustrated in FIG. 16, the auction system 102 includes an auctionserver 5 and an emotion server 2.

The emotion server 2 acquires interaction information from the userObj.A who is a member of the auction system 102, the house Obj.B, thecar Obj.C and the camera Obj.D with which the user Obj.A usuallyperforms interactions.

Further, the user Obj.A and a user illustrated in FIG. 16 arerespectively correlated with unique IDs and registered when they areregistered as members in the auction system 102. In addition, the userObj.A transmits a unique object ID of an item to the auction server 5when he or she exhibits the item at the auction system 102. The auctionserver 5 requests an emotion value of the corresponding object from theemotion server 2 on the basis of the object ID of the exhibited object.Here, the auction server 5 also requests an emotion value of the userObj.A who is the exhibitor of the corresponding object from the emotionserver 2. Further, when the corresponding object is an item having aspecific model number and item name, it may be possible to acquireinformation on other exhibited items having the same model number anditem name from the item and user information DB 42 (refer to FIG. 6) ofthe auction server 5 and request emotion values from the emotion server2 on the basis of acquired object IDs of the items.

Such acquisition of emotion values by the auction server 5 from theemotion server 2 may be performed when a new item is exhibited or whenan auction service user designates an item with the auction server 5while checking items to purchase.

Then, the auction server 5 may regard the acquired emotion values ascredibility (carefulness, whether the item was carefully handled,affection, etc.) of the item and sort items in order of emotion valuesto display items handled more carefully and items for which their usershave affection at higher levels on the basis of the acquired emotionvalues.

The overview of the auction system 102 according to the secondapplication example has been described above.

(3-2-1. Configuration)

Next, a configuration of the auction server 5 included in the auctionsystem 102 will be described with reference to FIG. 17.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configurationof the auction server 5 according to the present embodiment. Asillustrated in FIG. 17, the auction server 5 includes a controller 50, acommunication unit 51 and an item and user information DB 52.

(Communication Unit)

The communication unit 51 is connected to a terminal (not shown) of auser through a network, receives a request from the user and transmitsemotion values of exhibited items and exhibitors to the user dependingon the request. Further, the communication unit 41 is connected to theemotion server 2 through a network and acquires an emotion value of atarget object and emotion values of related objects.

(Controller)

The controller 50 controls each component of the auction server 5.Further, the controller 50 is realized by a micro-computer including aCPU, a ROM, a RAM and a nonvolatile memory. In addition, the controller50 according to the present embodiment functions as a related itemsearch unit 50 a, an emotion value request unit 50 b, a resultgeneration unit 50 c, a display controller 50 d and an object managementunit 50 e.

The related item search unit 50 a searches the item and user informationDB 42 for items related to a check target item. Items related to thecheck target item are items having the same model number and name as thecheck target item, for example.

The emotion value request unit 50 b requests an emotion value of thecheck target item from the emotion server 2. Specifically, the emotionvalue request unit 50 b transmits, to the emotion server 2 through thecommunication unit 51, the object ID of the check target item, objectIDs of related items when there are related items, and the object ID ofthe exhibitor of the check target item.

The result generation unit 50 c generates a result of checking ofemotion values of the check target item and the like on the basis of theemotion values of the check target item and the like acquired by theemotion value request unit 50 b from the emotion server 2. Specifically,the result generation unit 50 c generates a result screen displaying theemotion value of the check target item, for example.

The display controller 50 d controls the result screen generated by theresult generation unit 50 c to be displayed through a user terminal of arequest source. For example, the display controller 50 d controlsinformation for displaying the result screen to be transmitted to theuser terminal through the communication unit 41.

The object management unit 50 e performs management such asregistration, modification and deletion of information about items andusers (examples of objects) stored in the item and user information DB42.

(Item and User Information DB)

The item and user information DB 52 is a storage unit storinginformation about items and users. A user is a user registered as amember in the auction system 102, for example. Further, item and userinformation includes object IDs of each item and each user.

Here, an example of data of exhibited item information stored in theitem and user information DB 52 is illustrated in FIG. 18. Asillustrated in FIG. 18, exhibition IDs for identifying respectiveexhibited items, type IDs, object IDs of items, object IDs ofexhibitors, exhibition dates and times, auction end dates and times,current prices, bid lists and item descriptions are correlated andstored in the item and user information DB 52.

The configuration of the auction server 5 according to the presentapplication example has been described above. Meanwhile, theconfiguration of the emotion server 2 included in the auction system 102has been described with reference to FIG. 3 and thus description thereofis omitted here.

[Example of Data Configuration]

Next, an example of data of the emotion information DB 24 of the emotionserver 2 used to calculate emotion values used in the auction system 102will be described with reference to FIG. 19. Meanwhile, an example ofdata of the object DB 22 used in the present application example is thesame as the example illustrated in FIG. 7 and thus description thereofis omitted here.

FIG. 19 is an illustration of an example of data of the emotioninformation DB 24 of the emotion server 2 according to the secondapplication example. Information about an interaction generated betweenobjects is stored in the emotion information DB 24. In the example ofdata illustrated in FIG. 19, object IDs of objects for whichinteractions have been generated, dates and times and periods ofinteractions, related object IDs, interaction types, details ofinteractions and interaction evaluation values are correlated andstored.

When an interaction is generated between objects, the interaction isextracted with respect to both objects and each interaction is evaluatedby the evaluation unit 20 b. While interaction evaluation valuesextracted with respect to both objects are identical in the exampleillustrated in FIG. 19, the present application example is not limitedthereto and the interaction evaluation values may be different. Forexample, when an interaction of “operating” performed by a user (objectID: 1930213) with respect to a digital camera (object ID: 384) isextracted, a positive evaluation is performed for the user who treasuresthe camera and thus operated the camera carefully whereas a negativeevaluation is performed for the camera which was forcibly operated,roughly placed and the like. In this manner, different evaluations maybe performed depending on interaction directions.

Meanwhile, examples of extraction and evaluation of each interaction areas follows.

For example, with respect to a driving interaction, details of theinteraction, such as carefulness and recklessness of driving, areanalyzed on the basis of sensing data sensed by sensors attached to anaccelerator pedal, a brake pedal and a steering wheel. Further, anevaluation value of the driving interaction is obtained in a range of−1.0 to 1.0 by inputting input values of accelerator, brake and steeringwheel operations to an evaluation function.

In addition, with respect to an interaction of operating a camera or thelike, force of pressing a shutter button of the camera, speed ofrotating dials/the number of returns due to excessive rotation, impactwhen the camera is placed, and impact applied to the body when put intoa bag or the like are sensed with sensors. The evaluation unit 20 bweights each value on the basis of sensing data sensed by the sensors tocalculate an evaluation value. Further, the evaluation unit 20 bnormalizes the calculated value to a range of −1.0 to 1.0.

In addition, with respect to an interaction of storing the camera or thelike, temperature, humidity and dustiness (sensible with a dust sensor)of a storage place are extracted through sensing. On the basis ofvariations of such values in a storage period, the evaluation unit 20 bnumerically expresses whether a storage state of the camera or the likeis favorable or unfavorable. Further, each parameter may be weighted tocalculate an evaluation value. The evaluation unit 20 b normalizescalculated values to a range of −1.0 to 1.0.

(3-2-2. Display Process)

Next, a display process of the auction system 102 will be described withreference to FIGS. 20 to 26.

[List Display]

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating a list display process depending onemotion values of exhibited items according to the second applicationexample. As illustrated in FIG. 20, first of all, an exhibited item of acheck target is designated by a user in step S303.

Then, the emotion value request unit 50 b of the auction server 5searches the item and user information DB 52 for the item designated bythe user in step S306. Here, items related to information on thecorresponding item searched for by the related item search unit 50 a(other exhibited items having the same model number and name) may alsobe searched for.

Subsequently, the emotion value request unit 50 b requests an emotionvalue of the target person to the emotion server 2 on the basis of theobject ID of each item in step S309.

Thereafter, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e of the emotionserver 2 calculates an emotion value on the basis of an interactionevaluation value correlated with the object ID of the designated item instep S312.

When emotion values of a plurality of items are requested, theaforementioned steps S309 and S312 are repeated until calculation ofemotion values of all items is finished (S315).

Thereafter, when calculation of emotion values of all items is finished(“Yes” in S315), the result generation unit 50 c of the auction server 5sorts items in order of emotion values and generates an exhibited itemranking screen based on emotion values in step S318. Here, the resultgeneration unit 40 c generates a ranking screen based on a total emotionvalue (absolute emotion value) of the target item.

Here, an example of a list display screen based on emotion values ofexhibited items is illustrated in FIG. 21. As illustrated in FIG. 21, alist display screen 55 displays check target items in order based ontotal emotion values (absolute emotion values) of respective items. Thecheck target items include exhibited items (related items) having thesame model number and name as an exhibited item designated by a user inaddition to the exhibited item designated by the user. Accordingly, theuser can recognize emotion values of exhibited items of the same type asthe designated exhibited item in addition to the designated exhibiteditem.

For example, the list display screen 55 includes target item informationboxes 56 a, 56 b and 56 c which are arranged in descending order ofemotion values. The target item information boxes 56 a, 56 b and 56 ceach include the names of exhibitors of target items, and starindicators indicating ranking based on emotion values. Further, emotionvalues corresponding to a basis of ranking may be displayed in thetarget item information boxes 56 a, 56 b and 56 c.

In addition, when an arrow 561 included in the target item informationbox 56 a is selected, for example, detailed information about an emotionvalue of an item exhibited by an exhibitor ∘∘∘∘ is displayed. Display ofdetailed information about an emotion value of an item will be describedbelow with reference to FIG. 22 to 24. Further, when an exhibitor name562 included in the target item information box 46 c is selected, forexample, detailed information about an emotion value of an exhibitorΔΔΔΔ is displayed. Display of detailed information about an emotionvalue of an exhibitor will be described below with reference to FIGS. 25and 26.

Referring back to FIG. 20, the display controller 50 d controls theresult (list display screen) generated by the result generation unit 50c to be displayed through a user terminal of a request source in stepS321.

[Display of Detailed Information about Emotion Value of Exhibited Item]

FIG. 22 is a flowchart illustrating a process of displaying detailedinformation about an emotion value of an exhibited item according to thesecond application example. As illustrated in FIG. 22, first of all, thepersonal credit information provision server 4 acquires an object ID ofan exhibited item from an exhibition ID and requests an emotion value ofthe exhibited item from the emotion server 2 in step S333.

Subsequently, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e of the emotionserver 2 acquires detailed content (item type, maker, manufacture dateand time, etc.) of an object corresponding to the object ID of the itemfrom the object DB 22 in step S336.

Then, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e acquires all interactionevaluation values of the target item from the emotion information DB 24through filtering using the object ID of the item in step S339 (refer toFIG. 23).

Thereafter, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e classifies all theacquired interaction evaluation values of the target item for respectiverelated object IDs in step S341. Here, a related object ID refers to anobject having an interaction performed with respect to the target itemand, generally, corresponds to the owner of the target item.

Then, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e selects one related objectID in step S344.

Subsequently, a relative emotion value between the selected relatedobject ID and the target item is calculated in step S347. That is, theemotion value calculation unit 20 e calculates an interaction evaluationvalue with respect to the related object ID selected in theaforementioned step S344 from among the emotion values classified forrespective related object IDs in the aforementioned step S341.

Subsequently, the aforementioned steps S344 and S347 are repeated untilcalculation of relative emotion values of all related object IDscorresponding to (having interaction relations with) the target item isfinished (S351).

Then, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e calculates an absoluteemotion value of the target item on the basis of all interactionevaluation values of the target item, acquired in S339, in step S352.Hereinafter, an example of calculation of relative/absolute emotionvalues of an exhibited item will be described with reference to FIG. 23.

FIG. 23 is an explanatory diagram of calculation of relative/absoluteemotion values of an exhibited item according to the second applicationexample. As illustrated in FIG. 23, first of all, all interactioninformation about the exhibited item is acquired from the emotioninformation DB 24 through filtering using the exhibited item (object ID:384).

Then, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e calculates an absoluteemotion value of the item and emotion values (relative emotion valueswith respect to respective related object IDs (object IDs: 1930213, 4649and 5963084) on the basis of the acquired interaction information. Arelated object ID is an object ID of a past owner of the item.

The absolute emotion value of the item is a total number of emotionvalues based on interaction history of the item so far. Specifically,the absolute emotion value of the item is calculated based on a totalsum of the products of average values with respect to respectiveinteraction types and weights a depending on interaction types(operating and storing), for example, as illustrated in FIG. 23.

Further, the absolute emotion value of the item is an emotion valuebased on interaction history of each past owner of the item. FIG. 23illustrates a mathematical expression of calculating a relative emotionvalue between object ID: 5963084 (an owner) and a digital camera (objectID: 384) as an example. As illustrated in FIG. 23, a relative emotionvalue between the item and the related object ID is calculated based ona total sum of the products of average values with respect tointeraction types and weights a depending on interaction types(operating and storing) using interaction history (the third and fourthlines of the example of data illustrated in FIG. 23) with respect torelated object ID: 5963084.

Referring back to FIG. 22, the result generation unit 50 c of theauction server 5 generates a screen displaying chronological relativeemotion values with respect to the related object ID, content of majorinteractions, and the absolute emotion value (total emotion value) ofthe item as detailed information about emotion values of the itemacquired by the emotion value request unit 50 b from the emotion server2 in step S354. Then, the display controller 50 d controls the generateddetailed information display screen through a user terminal of a requestsource.

Here, an example of the display screen of detailed information aboutemotion values of the exhibited item is illustrated in FIG. 24. Thetarget item information box 46 a of the list display screen 55illustrated in FIG. 21 is switched to a display screen 57 of detailedinformation on the exhibited item illustrated in FIG. 24 when the arrow561 included in the target item information box 46 a of the list displayscreen 55 illustrated in FIG. 21 is selected, and detailed informationabout emotion values of the item exhibited by the exhibitor ∘∘∘∘ isdisplayed.

The detailed information display screen 57 illustrated in FIG. 24displays relative emotion values (0.92, −0.56 and 0.80) of past ownersof the item exhibited by the exhibitor ∘∘∘∘ in time series and alsodisplays a total emotion value (absolute emotion value) of the item.Accordingly, a user can recognize how the item has been handled so farand what past owners thought about the item. In this way, emotion valuesobjectively indicating an emotional value based on manners of handlingso far are specified as a new value of the item,

[Display of Detailed Information about Emotion Value of Exhibitor]

FIG. 25 is a flowchart illustrating a process of displaying detailedinformation about an emotion value of an exhibitor. As illustrated inFIG. 25, first of all, the personal credit information provision server4 acquires an object ID of the exhibitor from an exhibition ID andrequests an emotion value of the exhibitor from the emotion server 2 instep S363.

Subsequently, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e of the emotionserver 2 acquires detailed content (name, sex, age and the like) of anobject corresponding to the object ID of the exhibitor from the objectDB 22 in step S366.

Then, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e acquires all interactionevaluation values (interaction information history so far) of theexhibitor from the emotion information DB 24 through filtering using theobject ID of the exhibitor in step S369.

Thereafter, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e classifies all theacquired interaction evaluation values of the exhibitor for respectiverelated object IDs in step S371. Here, related object IDs refer toobjects having interaction relations with a target person and generallycorrespond to items owned by the exhibitor and other items exhibited bythe exhibitor.

Then, in step S374, the emotion value calculation unit 20 e calculatesemotion values (relative emotion values) for respective related objects,calculates the sum (absolute emotion value) of the emotion values andtransmits the sum to the auction server 5. The result generation unit 50c of the auction server 5 generates a screen displaying the relativeemotion values of the respective related object IDs, content of majorinteractions, and an absolute emotion value (total emotion value) of theexhibitor as detailed information about emotion values of the exhibitoracquired by the emotion value request unit 50 b from the emotion server2. Then, the display controller 50 d controls the generated detailedinformation display screen to be displayed through a user terminal of arequest source. Meanwhile, the total emotion value (absolute emotionvalue) of the exhibitor may be a total sum of emotion values (relativeemotion values) of respective related objects or an average valuethereof or may be calculated by applying weights to interaction typesand then summing evaluation values or averaging the evaluation values.

Here, an example of the display screen of detailed information aboutemotion values of the exhibitor is illustrated in FIG. 26. The targetitem information box 46 c of the list display screen 55 illustrated inFIG. 21 is switched to a display screen 58 of detailed information onthe exhibitor illustrated in FIG. 26 when the exhibitor name 562included in the target item information box 46 c of the list displayscreen 55 illustrated in FIG. 21 is selected, and detailed informationabout emotion values of the exhibitor ΔΔΔΔ is displayed.

The detailed information display screen 58 illustrated in FIG. 26displays relative emotion values (−0.32, 0.12 and −0.3) with respect toitems of the exhibitor ΔΔΔΔ and additionally displays the total emotionvalue (absolute emotion value) of the exhibitor. Accordingly, a user candetermine whether the exhibitor is a person who generally handlesarticles carefully or a person who usually handles articles roughly bychecking emotion values of articles other than the exhibited item withrespect to trust and carefulness of handling of the exhibitor. Thepersonality of the exhibitor can be recognized by checking emotionvalues of the exhibitor before successfully bidding on the exhibiteditem.

Meanwhile, the detailed information display screen 58 may display otherinformation (age, sex and the like) set as sharable information by theexhibitor as information on the exhibitor.

The auction system 102 according to the second application example hasbeen described above.

3-3. Environment Adjustment System

Next, a case in which emotion values are used for an environmentadjustment system 103 that locally adjusts a surrounding environment ofa moving user will be described as a third application example withreference to FIGS. 27 to 34.

FIG. 27 is an explanatory diagram of the entire configuration of theenvironment adjustment system 103 according to the third applicationexample. As illustrated in FIG. 27, the environment adjustment system103 includes a moving object 6 that tracks a user to change asurrounding environment of the user and an environment adjustment server7 that controls the moving object 6. The environment adjustment server 7communicates with the moving object 6 via an access point or the likeand performs movement control and the like of the moving object 6. Themoving object 6 may be a plurality of moving objects 6 a to 6 c and maymove using base stations installed outdoors or the like as base points,as illustrated in FIG. 1.

The environment adjustment server 7 is connected to an emotion server 2and a heat map server 75 via a network 3 and acquires informationnecessary for movement control of the moving object 6. For example, theenvironment adjustment server 7 may acquire an emotion value of a userfrom the emotion server 2 and perform environment adjustment controldepending on the emotion value.

In addition, the environment adjustment server 7 may provide a morepleasant environment for a user by causing the moving object 6 to trackthe user and locally change a surrounding environment depending on anemotion of the user.

The moving object 6 may be realized by a small flying drone asillustrated in FIG. 27 and can fly while tracking a moving user. FIG. 28is an explanatory diagram of an example of environment adjustment by themoving object 6 of the present application example. As illustrated inFIG. 28, the moving object 6 may fly and track a moving user whileremaining above the user to function as an umbrella or a parasol suchthat the user is not exposed to rain or direct sunlight, thereby locallychanging a surrounding environment of the user, for example. Further,the moving object 6 may change a cover range as necessary. For example,the cover range may be widened by extending a plate member 651 thatextends from the center of the moving object 6 in a circular form, asillustrated in FIG. 28.

Meanwhile, the moving object 6 is not limited to the flying objectillustrated in FIG. 27 and may be, for example, a robot type movingobject that moves on the ground while tracking a user or a moving objectin the water.

The overview of the environment adjustment system 103 according to thepresent disclosure has been described above.

(3-3-1. Configuration)

Next, configurations of the moving object 6 and the environmentadjustment server 7 included in the environment adjustment system 103according to the present application example will be sequentiallydescribed. Incidentally, the configuration of the emotion server 2 hasbeen described with reference to FIG. 3 and thus description thereof isomitted here.

[Configuration of Moving Object 6]

FIG. 29 is an illustration of an example of the configuration of themoving object 6 according to the present application example. Asillustrated in FIG. 29, the moving object 6 includes a communicationunit 61, a target object sensor 62, a moving object controller 63, anenvironment sensor 64 and a transformation controller 65.

The communication unit 61 transmits/receives data to/from theenvironment adjustment server 7. For example, the communication unit 61transmits sensor information acquired through the target object sensor62 and the environment sensor 64 to the environment adjustment server 7and receives control information including instructions of movementcontrol and transformation control from the environment adjustmentserver 7.

The target object sensor 62 is a sensing unit that acquires informationabout a tracking target object. Here, the tracking target objectcorresponds to a user moving outdoors, for example. The target objectsensor 62 includes a camera 62 a, an infrared camera 62 b, a radiosignal receiver 62 c or a microphone array 62 d, for example, andacquires information about a user.

The moving object controller 63 has a function of controlling movementof the moving object 6. Specifically, the moving object controller 63includes a power-driving unit 63 a and an attitude controller 63 b. Thepower-driving unit 63 a is realized by, for example, a propeller, awheel or walking legs and operates to track a target user in accordancewith control of the moving object controller 63. In addition, theattitude controller 63 b senses an attitude of the moving object 6through a gyro sensor or the like and controls the power-driving unit 63a to adjust an inclination and altitude of the moving object 6. Themoving object controller 63 according to the present disclosure maylocally change a surrounding environment of a user by controlling aflight path and altitude of the moving object 6 such that the movingobject 6 becomes, for example, a cover from rain or sunlight for theuser.

The environment sensor 64 is a sensing unit that acquires informationabout a surrounding environment. Specifically, the environment sensor 64acquires environment information through a latitude-longitudepositioning unit 64 a or an altitude sensor 64 b, for example. Thespecific example of the environment sensor 64 is not limited to this andthe environment sensor 64 may further include a temperature sensor, ahumidity sensor and the like as necessary.

The transformation controller 65 performs control of transforming theshape of the moving object 6 to extend a cover range when covering fromrain or sunlight.

The aforementioned moving object 6 is equipped with a micro-computerincluding a central processing unit (CPU), a read only memory (ROM), arandom access memory (RAM) and a nonvolatile memory to control eachcomponent of the moving object 6.

[Configuration of Environment Adjustment Server]

FIG. 30 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration ofthe environment adjustment server 7 according to the present embodiment.As illustrated in FIG. 30, the environment adjustment server 7 includesa communication unit 71, a controller 70 and a user DB 72.

The communication unit 71 transmits/receives data to/from an externaldevice. Specifically, the communication unit 71 receives target objectinformation and environment information from the moving object 6 andtransmits control information for controlling movement of the movingobject 6 to the moving object 6, for example. Furthermore, thecommunication unit 71 acquires predetermined data from the emotionserver 2 and the heat map server 75 via the network 3.

The controller 70 controls each component of the environment adjustmentserver 7. Specifically, the controller 70 controls the moving object 6to track a target user to change a surrounding environment of the targetuser depending on a user's emotion. In addition, the controller 70 isrealized by a micro-computer including a CPU, a ROM, a RAM and anonvolatile memory.

Here, the controller 70 functions as a user setting and management unit70 a, a target object detection unit 70 b, an emotion estimation unit 70c, an environment information acquisition unit 70 d, a heat mapgeneration/acquisition unit 70 e, an emotion value calculation unit 70 fand a moving object controller 70 g.

The user setting and management unit 70 a manages registration, changeand deletion of information of a user who uses the present system. Forexample, the information of the user includes the user's name,identification number, face image, age, sex, hobbies, tastes, homeaddress, place of work, behavior pattern and the like.

The target object detection unit 70 b detects a person located near themoving object 6, an object carried by the person, and the like on thebasis of target object sensor information transmitted from the movingobject 6. Specifically, the target object detection unit 70 b may detectthe target user, for example, by analyzing a captured image transmittedfrom the moving object 6 and comparing the captured image with a faceimage of the user registered in the user DB 72. Otherwise, the targetobject detection unit 70 b may detect the target user on the basis ofuser identification information received by the moving object 6 from aradio communication device such as the smart band worn by the user.

The emotion estimation unit 70 c estimates an emotion of the target userdetected by the target object detection unit 70 b. Specifically, theemotion estimation unit 70 c estimates an emotion of the target user onthe basis of bio-information (pulse, temperature, volume ofperspiration, brainwave and the like), for example. The bio-informationis acquired by the smart band worn by a user, transmitted to the movingobject 6 and transmitted from the moving object 6 to the environmentadjustment server 7.

Furthermore, the emotion estimation unit 70 c may estimate an emotion ofthe target user on the basis of attributes (sex, age, height, weight,personality, occupation and the like), hobbies and tastes and asurrounding environment of the target user.

The environment information acquisition unit 70 d acquires informationabout a surrounding environment from the moving object 6 through thecommunication unit 71. Specifically, the environment informationacquisition unit 70 d acquires data (latitude, longitude, altitude andthe like) sensed by the environment sensor 64 of the moving object 6 asenvironment information. In addition, the environment informationacquisition unit 70 d may acquire surrounding geographic information,building information and the like from a predetermined server asenvironment information depending on the location (latitude andlongitude information) of the moving object 6.

The heat map generation/acquisition unit 70 e generates an emotion heatmap that geographically maps emotions on the basis of estimation resultsof the emotion estimation unit 70 c and the environment informationoutput from the environment information acquisition unit 70 d. Morespecifically, the heat map generation/acquisition unit 70 e generates anemotion heat map indicating whether there are many users having certainemotions in certain places on the basis of results of estimation ofemotions of a plurality of users.

Further, the heat map generation/acquisition unit 70 e generates anenvironment heat map of surroundings of the current place of the targetuser on the basis of the environment information (latitude, longitude,altitude, geographical information, building information, etc.) outputfrom the environment information acquisition unit 70 d.

The heat map generated in this manner may be stored in the heat mapserver 75 on a network or stored in a storage unit (not shown) of theenvironment adjustment server 7. Furthermore, the heat map may beperiodically updated.

In addition, the heat map generation/acquisition unit 70 e may generatean integrated heat map of an emotion heat map and an environment heatmap.

The emotion value calculation unit 70 f calculates emotion values (i.e.,relative emotion values) with respect to belongings of the target userdetected by the target object detection unit 70 b and a person (relatedobject) along the target user. Specifically, the emotion valuecalculation unit 70 f acquires an interaction evaluation valuecorrelated to an object ID of the target user from the emotion server 2and calculates a relative emotion value of the target user for eachinteraction evaluation value on the basis of the interaction evaluation.

For example, evaluation of an interaction of the target user frequentlymaintaining a watch that he or she owns and evaluation of an interactionof storing the watch in a case specially designed therefor are stored inthe emotion server 2 and the emotion value calculation unit 70 facquires such interaction evaluations of the target user and calculatesemotion values. Although an evaluation value calculation method is notparticularly limited, for example, interactions with a specific object(related object) of the target user may be classified by interactiontypes and evaluations of all interactions with respect to the specificobject may be averaged using a weighting function depending oninteraction type. The object ID of the target user may be acquired fromthe user DB 72.

The moving object controller 70 h determines an area that requiresenvironmental change on a route through which the target user moves onthe basis of the integrated heat map output from the heat mapgeneration/acquisition unit 70 e and controls the moving object 6 tochange a surrounding environment of the user. Determination of the areathat requires environmental change is performed on the basis of whethera value of the integrated heat map is higher than a predeterminedthreshold value. In this manner, the surrounding environment of thetarget user may be locally changed by causing the moving object 6 totrack the target user when the target user passes through a place wherethe user easily gets wet in the rain, for example, to take shelter fromthe rain by using the integrated heat map obtained by integrating theemotion heat map and the environment heat map, thereby allowing thetarget user to be in a pleasant state.

Furthermore, when the surrounding environment of the target user ischanged by the moving object 6, the moving object controller 70 h mayperform control of extending a cover range by the moving object 6 orcovering belongings of the target user or a person with the target userprior to the target user depending on an emotion value (a valuingdegree) with respect to the belongings of the target user or the personwith the target user, obtained by the emotion value calculation unit 70f.

The configuration of each device included in the present applicationexample has been described in detail above. Meanwhile, although theprinciple of calculation of emotion values by the emotion valuecalculation unit 70 f of the environment adjustment server 7 has beendescribed in the present application example, calculation of emotionvalues may be performed on the side of the emotion server 2.

(3-3-2. Operation Processes)

Next, operation processes according to the present application examplewill be described with reference to FIGS. 31 and 32.

[Environment Adjustment Process]

FIG. 31 is a flowchart illustrating an environment adjustment process.As illustrated in FIG. 31, first of all, the environment adjustmentserver 7 acquires environment information of a current place and adestination of a target user and destination arrival time information instep S403.

Subsequently, the emotion estimation unit 70 c of the environmentadjustment server 7 acquires attributes, hobbies, tastes,bio-information and the like of the user in step S406.

Next, the emotion estimation unit 70 c estimates a user's emotion instep S409. That is, the emotion estimation unit 70 c may estimate auser's emotion in the current environment on a route from the currentlocation to the destination on the basis of the attributes, hobbies,tastes, bio-information and the like of the user. For example, when theuser is a woman in her 30s, the fact that the user usually carries aparasol is extracted from the past behavior history, conversations,writing and the like and the fact that sunblock and the parasol werepurchased is extracted from purchase history, it is estimated that thewoman has a feeling of being worried (unpleasant emotion) aboutultraviolet rays, direct sunlight and sunburn.

Subsequently, the controller 70 of the environment adjustment server 7determines whether environmental change is necessary on the basis of theestimation result in step S412. Specifically, when the user has afeeling of warrying (unpleasant emotion) about ultraviolet rays, directsunlight and sunburn, for example, the controller 70 determines thatenvironmental change is necessary if weather of the current location anddestination is clear and there is exposure to direct sunlight.

Thereafter, when the environment change is necessary (“Yes” in S412),the moving object controller 70 g controls the moving object 6 to changea surrounding environment of the target user in step S415. Specifically,the moving object controller 70 g causes the moving object 6 to trackthe target user to fly at a position for covering from rain or sunlight.

Then, the environment adjustment server 7 determines whether the userhas arrived at the destination in step S418. When the user has arrivedat the destination, the environment adjustment operation is ended andthus the moving object controller 70 g controls the moving object 6 toreturn a predetermined base station, for example.

When the user has not arrived at the destination (“No” in S418), theenvironment adjustment server 7 acquires current position information ofthe user and environment information of the current location through thetarget object detection unit 70 b and the environment informationacquisition unit 70 d in step S421. S415 is repeated.

[Cover Range Change Process]

Next, a process of changing the cover range of the moving object 6 willbe described with reference to FIG. 32. The present application examplemay change the cover range on the basis of an emotion value of thetarget user. Accordingly, it is possible to perform environmentadjustment depending on a feeling of the target user such aspreferentially covering an article usually important to the target useror covering a person important to the target user.

FIG. 32 is a flowchart illustrating a range change process. Asillustrated in FIG. 32, first of all, the emotion value calculation unit70 f of the environment adjustment server 7 decides an object ID of atarget user in step S433.

Then, information on the surroundings of the moving object 6 is sensedby the target object sensor 62 and the environment sensor 64 to acquireinformation on the target user and information on a surroundingenvironment in step S436.

Subsequently, the aforementioned step S436 is repeated until the decidedtarget user can be detected in step S439.

When the target user is detected (“Yes” in S439), an object (such as astroller or baggage) moving with the target user or a person moving withthe target user is detected by the target object detection unit 70 b instep S442.

Subsequently, the emotion value calculation unit 70 f acquires an objectID of the detected object or person in step S445. This object ID (alsoreferred to as a related object ID) may be previously registered in theuser DB 72 or may be searched for in the object DB 22 by the relatedobject search unit 20 d inquiring of the emotion server 2 on the basisof a result of analysis of a captured image acquired by the camera 62 aof the moving object 6.

Then, in step S448, the emotion value calculation unit 70 f designatesthe object ID of the target user and the object ID of the object orperson moving with the target user and acquires an interactionevaluation values between the target user and the object or person fromthe emotion server 2. For example, the interaction evaluation values areobtained by normalizing evaluation values of conversations and mailbetween the target user and other persons, or behaviors of the targetuser with respect to objects, such as storing, maintenance, wearing andenjoying to a range of −1.0 to 1.0. Here, an example of specificinteraction evaluation data used for emotion value calculation will bedescribed with reference to FIGS. 33 and 34.

FIG. 33 is an illustration of an example of interaction evaluation dataaccording to the present application example. FIG. 33 is an example ofinteraction evaluation used when the moving object 6 functions as anumbrella. A case in which it is raining when a target user (object ID:70007) tries to come back to work after lunch outside with a co-worker(object ID: 70008) is assumed as a situation. In this case, the movingobject controller 70 g acquires interaction evaluation values asillustrated in FIG. 33 from the emotion server 2 in order to decidewhether the moving object 6 will fly while covering the co-worker inaddition to the target user from the rain (how much the moving object 6will cover, whether to equally cover the two persons or preferentiallycover one side over the other side, etc. when covering the two persons).

The interaction evaluation example illustrated in FIG. 33 includesevaluation values of interactions, for example, a conversation, mail andcontact in places outside work when the interactions are generated. Theconversation interaction is evaluated based on, for example, likabilitybased on a conversation speech tone of the user through voicerecognition, an intimacy level based on conversation content recognizedthrough voice recognition and syntactic analysis (whether a conversationabout personal issues other than issues regarding work have beenperformed in this case), a degree of smiling of the user based on imageanalysis, the number of times the two persons' eyes make contact basedon image analysis, and the like. Further, the mail interaction isevaluated using an intimacy degree of writing of mail based on syntacticanalysis, a degree of respect, the number of pieces of mail and thelike. In addition, the interaction of contact in places outside work isevaluated by detecting whether an interaction is an interaction at workor outside work through position information or other sensors andevaluated based on the time the persons spent together outside work, thetime they were close to each other, and conversation interactionevaluation when a conversation was performed.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 33, evaluation of a co-worker (objectID: 70008) from the viewpoint of a target user (object ID: 70007) slowlyincreases and thus high likability is measured. Further, evaluation ofthe target user (object ID: 70007) from the viewpoint of the co-worker(object ID: 70008) also slowly increases but is lower than evaluation ofthe co-worker (object ID: 70008) from the viewpoint of the target user(object ID: 70007), and thus it can be recognized that they evaluateeach other differently.

When the target user (object ID: 70007) calls the moving object 6, themoving object controller 70 g controls the moving object 6 to cover theco-worker with the target user because the fact that the target user(object ID: 70007) has a good feeling toward the co-worker (object ID:70008) is recognized from the calculated high emotion value although thecontrol depends on evaluation weights depending on interaction typeswhen emotion values are calculated.

FIG. 34 is an illustration of another example of interaction evaluationdata according to the present application example. FIG. 34 is an exampleof interaction evaluation used when the moving object 6 functions as aparasol. A case in which the sunlight is strong when a target user(object ID: 8165) wears an antique wrist watch (object ID: 80075) thathe or she considers a treasure and that is a keepsake from his or herfather is assumed as a situation. The wrist watch is important to thetarget user and thus the target user wants to preferentially cover thewrist watch (such that it is not exposed to direct sunlight) over his orher body.

The interaction evaluation example illustrated in FIG. 34 includesevaluation values of interactions, for example, storing, maintenance,wearing and enjoying when the interactions are generated. With respectto the storing interaction, evaluation is decided based on the intensityof light (darkness level), humidity and temperature of a preservationplace, an average value of such values, and a degree of constantpreservation. In this example, a specially designed case was used andthus evaluation therefor is very high. Further, since the user preservedthe wrist watch in a specially designed preservation case for a hotsummer period, evaluation therefor is weighted more and thus much higherthan in other preservation periods (0.5 in the first and second linesalthough normally 0.3). In addition, when the watch was preservedwithout maintenance after dinner, evaluation of preservation decreasesand thus order in preservation also affects evaluation. Further,although affection for a certain article disappears as its preservationperiod increases and thus evaluation therefor may decrease, it isassumed that a temporal factor during preservation does not affectevaluation with respect to the wrist watch because the wrist watch isimportant to the user.

In addition, maintenance is evaluated based on a prescribed index ofcontent of the maintenance, evaluation of a maintenance expert, or otherobjective ranking indices or the like. For example, in the case ofcontent such as a thorough overhaul or maintenance at a shop used sofar, evaluation increases.

The wearing maintenance is evaluated depending on importance,specificity and the like of an event (a destination place) for which theuser goes out wearing the watch. In the case of a special event in whichthe user does not usually participate, for example, evaluation ofwearing the watch is higher. Meanwhile, evaluation of wearing the watchwhen the user participates in a press event held many times every yearis lower. In addition, the intensity of light, temperature, humidity, adegree of proximity to other peoples, and the like when the user iswearing the watch also affect evaluation values.

Further, the maintenance interaction is evaluated through analysis ofwhether each part was separated and maintained through a maintenanceprocess using pictures.

With respect to evaluation of enjoying, an enjoying interaction isdetected on the basis of the time for which the user enjoyed the watchand a face expression of the user at that time and evaluated dependingon a degree of happiness, a degree of relaxation in accordance withbrainwaves, and the like. Further, when an action of the user whenenjoying the watch, for example, explicitly explaining that the watch isa keepsake to a friend, is detected through voice recognition, syntacticanalysis and the like, evaluation becomes high.

The emotion value calculation unit 70 f calculates a user's intentionwith respect to an article and a thought about the article as emotionvalues on the basis of evaluation of such interaction with the articleworn on the body of the user. In addition, the moving object controller70 g determines importance of the wrist watch worn on the body of theuser on the basis of emotion values and controls the moving object 6 topreferentially cover the wrist watch from the direct sunlight over thetarget user.

Subsequently, returning to FIG. 32, the emotion value calculation unit70 f calculates an emotion value of the target user with respect to theobject/person in step S451. Although an emotion value calculationformula is not particularly limited, interactions of the target userwith a specific object (related object) may be classified by interactiontypes and interaction evaluations for the specific object may beaveraged using a weighting function depending on interaction type (referto the following formula 1), for example.

Ave(ω_(intA)·(Ave(E _(intA) ·TW(t))),ω_(intB)·(Ave(E _(intB)·TW(t))),ω_(intC)(Ave(E _(intC) ·TW(t))), . . . )  (Formula 1)

Here.

ω_(intA): Weight of interaction A

E_(intA): Evaluation value of interaction A

TW(t): Weighting function of elapsed time for evaluation value

The above formula 1 corresponds to a case in which an emotion value iscalculated on the basis of an interaction evaluation value betweenpersons and uses a weighting function TW(t) of elapsed time for anevaluation value. t specifies interaction time (or evaluation time) andweighting is performed depending on a time elapsed from when aninteraction is performed. This is because a recent interaction isconsidered as more important than a past interaction in the case of arelation between persons.

Next, the moving object controller 70 g determines whether the coverrange needs to be changed on the basis of the emotion value calculatedby the emotion value calculation unit 70 f in step S454. Specifically,the moving object controller 70 g determines that the object/person iscovered along with the target user or covered prior to the target userwhen a relative emotion value of the target user with respect to theobject/person is higher than a threshold value.

When the cover range needs to be changed (“Yes” in S454), the movingobject controller 70 g instructs the moving object 6 to change the coverrange in step S457.

According to the present application example, as described above, whenthe target user walks while carrying a valued antique, for example, theantique can be covered by the moving object 6 such that the antique isnot exposed to the sun or rain. When the target user is with a child ora friend, they can share the cover range.

3-4. Telepresence System

Next, a case in which emotion values are used when a privacy level isset in a telepresence system 104 that controls communication of remoteplaces will be described as a fourth application example with referenceto FIGS. 35 to 41.

FIG. 35 is an explanatory diagram of the entire configuration of thetelepresence system 104 according to the fourth application example. Asillustrated in FIG. 35, the telepresence system 104 according to thepresent application example can connect a plurality of spaces (e.g.,rooms R1 and R2) and provide a picture of one space to the other spaceto achieve communication between users in remote spaces. Specifically,the telepresence system 104 acquires a state of a user A in the room R1with a high-definition camera and a microphone array installed in theroom R1 and outputs the acquired state through a display part 82 a-2 anda speaker installed in the room R2. Similarly, the telepresence system104 acquires a state of a user B in the room R2 with a high-definitioncamera and a microphone array installed in the room R2 and outputs theacquired state through a display part 82 a-l and a speaker installed inthe room R1.

In this way, states of both sides are photographed with high-definitioncameras and provided to counterparts and thus even remotely locatedusers can perform more realistic and close communication. However, ameans for controlling user privacy is needed.

The telepresence system 104 according to the present application examplecan appropriately maintain privacy by automatically setting a privacylevel in the telepresence system depending on a counterpart.Specifically, it is possible to cope with a user demand for not wantingto show part of a picture of a room without turning off and unilaterallyshutting communication by masking pictures provided to a counterpartdepending on a set privacy level.

In the present application example, emotion values corresponding topredetermined indices indicating personality and trust of a counterpartare used to set such privacy level.

For example, when an emotion value of the user B is high, it can be saidthat the user B is a highly trusted person and thus the telepresencesystem 104 sets a privacy level of the user A with respect to the user Bto be lower and extends an area of a picture exposed to the user B.Conversely, when the emotion value of the user B is low, it can be saidthat the user B is not a highly trusted person and thus the telepresencesystem 104 sets a privacy level of the user A with respect to the user Bto be higher and reduces the area of the picture open to the user B orcontrols communication to be turned off.

Here, control of the area of the picture (captured image of the user A)open to the counterpart depending on the set privacy level is realizedby masking the picture using a predetermined means. As the picturemasking means, privacy of the user A may be appropriately protected bysuperimposing an image on the open picture (captured image of the userA) to hide at least part of the open picture, for example. In thepresent application example, a shoji image, for example, is used as thesuperimposed image. The shoji is a device that expresses the intentionof a person who operates it because the shoji is opened and closed byhorizontal movement. That is, in the case of the shoji, stopping in aslightly open state is not unstable and expresses the intention (to opento a certain degree) of a person who operates the door, distinguishedfrom doors and windows which turn on hinges. The user B can intuitivelyrecognize a degree to which the user A is willing to share depending ona degree of the open picture hidden by the shoji image (an openingdegree of a virtual shoji, that is, opening degree).

The privacy level is set as an opening degree of a virtual shoji of sucha shoji image. That is, the opening degree increases when the privacylevel decreases and the opening degree decreases when the privacy levelincreases. In addition, the opening degree of the shoji image (privacylevel) may be shared by a communication source and a communicationdestination. Accordingly, the user A can intuitively recognize to whatdegree his or her privacy level is set by viewing the opening degree ofthe shoji image displayed on a display part 82 a-l.

FIG. 36 is an explanatory diagram of an example of the shoji imageaccording to the present application example. As illustrated in FIG. 36,a display part 82 a, a camera 82 b and a microphone array 82 c areprovided on the surface of a wall in a room R1 where the user A is. Thedisplay part 82 a is arranged such that the lower end thereof which isalso the surface of a wall of the room R2 is close to the floor torealize presence and experience as if the shoji were actually providedon the wall of the room R1 and the remote room R2 were nearby when acaptured image 821 of a room R2 and a shoji image 822 are displayed onthe display part 82 a. Further, the camera 82 b and the microphone array82 c are provided above the display part 82 a as an example.

The display part 82 a displays the captured image 821 transmitted fromthe room R2 and the shoji image 822 that masks the captured image 821.The shoji image 822 displayed while superimposing on the captured image821 and the opening degree thereof is adjusted depending on the privacylevel.

The overview of the telepresence system 104 according to the presentapplication example has been described above. Although the shoji image822 is used as an example of a privacy control means in the exampleillustrated in FIG. 36, the present application example is not limitedthereto and, for example, images of a curtain, a roll curtain, a misu, ablind, frosted glass, a liquid crystal shutter and the like may be usedin the same manner. When the privacy control means is a curtain image, aroll curtain image, a misu image or a blind image, the privacy level isset as the opening degree thereof. When the privacy control means is afrosted glass image or a liquid crystal shutter image, the privacy levelis set as the transmittance thereof.

In addition, data transmission and reception of the room R1 arecontrolled by a first communication control device (not shown) and datatransmission and reception of the room R2 are controlled by a secondcommunication control device (not shown) in the telepresence system 104described above. The first and second communication control devices areconnected through a network and transmit/receive data to/from eachother.

(3-4-1. Configuration)

Next, a configuration of the communication control device included inthe telepresence system 104 will be described with reference to FIG. 37.FIG. 37 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configurationof the communication control device 8 according to the fourthapplication example. The communication control device 8 controlstransmission and reception of data in spaces connected through thetelepresence system 1.

As illustrated in FIG. 37, the communication control device 8 accordingto the present embodiment includes a controller 80, a communication unit81, a telepresence unit 82, various sensors 83, a calendar and clockunit 85 and a storage unit 87.

[Controller 80]

The controller 80 controls each component of the communication controldevice 8. The controller 80 is realized by a micro-computer including aCPU, a ROM, a RAM and a nonvolatile memory. Specifically, the controller80 functions as a counterpart user information acquisition unit 80 a, anemotion value calculation unit 80 b, an opening degree setting unit 80c, a telepresence controller 80 d, a gesture detection unit 80 e and anemotion information acquisition unit 80 f.

The counterpart user information acquisition unit 80 a acquiresinformation about a counterpart user of a communication destination.

The emotion value calculation unit 80 b acquires an interactionevaluation value correlated to the counterpart user from the emotionserver 2 on the basis of an object ID of the counterpart user andcalculates an emotion value of the counterpart user. The object ID ofthe counterpart user may be acquired through the counterpart userinformation acquisition unit 8 a or through inquiry of a specific serveror previously registered in the storage unit 87. The emotion valuecalculation unit 80 b outputs the calculated emotion value of thecounterpart user to the opening degree setting unit 80 c.

The opening degree setting unit 80 c sets a privacy level depending onthe counterpart user as an opening degree. Specifically, the openingdegree setting unit 80 c sets a lower privacy level, that is, a higheropening degree of a virtual shoji when the counterpart user is moretrusted depending on emotion values calculated by the emotion valuecalculation unit 80 b.

The telepresence control unit 80 d controls the telepresence unit 82 andrealizes telepresence between a target space and a communicationdestination space. Specifically, the telepresence control unit 80 dcontrols captured images photographed by the camera 82 b of thetelepresence unit 82 and sounds collected by the microphone array 82 cto be transmitted from the communication unit 81 to the communicationcontrol device of the communication destination. Here, the telepresencecontrol unit 80 d controls the captured image to be masked depending onthe opening degree set by the opening degree setting unit 80 c.Specifically, the telepresence control unit 80 d may perform processingof superimposing the shoji image on the captured image depending on theset opening degree and transmit the processed image to the communicationdestination or transmit the set opening degree with the captured imageto the communication destination.

In addition, the telepresence control unit 80 d controls the capturedimage 821 received from the communication control device of thecommunication destination to be displayed on the display part 82 a andcontrols received sounds to be reproduced through a speaker 82 d in thesame manner. When the privacy level is shared with the communicationdestination, the telepresence control unit 80 d adjusts the position ofthe displayed shoji image 822 is superimposed on the captured image 821depending on the opening degree set by the opening degree setting unit80 c.

The gesture detection unit 80 e detects a user's gesture on the basis ofdepth information acquired by a depth sensor 83 a included among thevarious sensors 83. For example, a gesture of opening/closing the shojiis detected. Accordingly, a user can arbitrarily change the openingdegree of the shoji image 822.

The emotion information acquisition unit 80 f estimates an emotion ofthe user and acquires emotion information on the basis ofbio-information detected by a bio-sensor 83 d which will be describedbelow, an expression of a face detected from a captured image acquiredby a visible light camera, content of conversation detected from voiceacquired through a microphone.

[Communication Unit 81]

The communication unit 81 transmits/receives data to/from an externaldevice. For example, the communication unit 81 transmits, to thecommunication control device of the communication destination, capturedimages photographed by the camera 82 b of the telepresence unit 82,sounds collected by the microphone array 82 c, the opening degree set bythe opening degree setting unit 80 c and the like under the control ofthe telepresence control unit 80 d. Further, the communication unit 81receives captured images and sounds acquired in the space of thecommunication destination from the communication control device of thecommunication destination.

Further, the communication unit 81 is connected to the emotion server 2and acquires an interaction evaluation value associated with the objectID of the target user.

[Various Sensors 83]

The various sensors 83 include a plurality of sensors for acquiringenvironment information of a target space, behavior information, emotioninformation and the like of a user in the target space. Specifically,the various sensors 83 according to the present embodiment include thedepth sensor 83 a, a person sensor 83 b, the behavior sensor 83 c, thebio-sensor 83 d, the position information acquisition unit 83 e, thealtitude sensor 83 f, the air pollution sensor 83 g, the temperature andhumidity sensor 83 h, the noise sensor 83 i and the like.

[Telepresence Unit 82]

The telepresence unit 82 includes the display part 82 a, the camera 82b, the microphone array 82 c and the speaker 82 d. The display part 82 adisplays the captured image 821 of the space of the communicationdestination and the shoji image 822 superimposed depending on theopening degree set by the opening degree setting unit 80 c, asillustrated in FIG. 36. In addition, the speaker 82 d outputs sounds ofthe space of the communication destination. Here, the speaker 82 d mayoutput the sounds at a volume depending on the opening degree set by theopening degree setting unit 80 c. The camera 82 b captures an image ofthe target space (space of the communication source) and the capturedimage is transmitted to the communication control device of thecommunication destination. The microphone array 82 c collects sounds ofthe target space, and sound data is transmitted to the communicationcontrol device of the communication destination.

[Calendar and Clock Unit 85]

The calendar and clock unit 85 acquires the current date and time andoutputs the acquired date and time information to the controller 80.

[Storage Unit]

The storage unit 87 stores programs of various processes executed by thecontroller 80 and data used in various processes, for example, theattribute information, object ID and the like of the user.

The configuration of the communication control device 8 according to thepresent application example has been described. Meanwhile, thecommunication control device 8 is not limited to the aforementionedcomponents. For example, the communication control device 8 may includea physical shoji unit and use a physical shoji arranged to cover thedisplay part 82 a as an example of a means for masking a picturedepending on the privacy level.

Further, calculation of an emotion value may be performed on the side ofthe emotion server 2 instead of the emotion value calculation unit 80 bof the communication control device 8.

In addition, although the communication control devices 3 forcontrolling spaces connected through telepresence are explained assystems connected through a network in the present application example,the telepresence system according to the present disclosure is notlimited thereto and communication of the spaces may be controlled by asingle server, for example. In this case, the server has the functionalcomponents included in the controller 80 of the communication controldevice 8 illustrated in FIG. 37. Further, the telepresence unit 82 andthe various sensors 83 are provided in each space.

(3-4-2. Operation Processes)

Next, operation processes of the telepresence system 104 according tothe present application example will be described in detail.

[Telepresence Control]

FIG. 38 is a flowchart illustrating a telepresence control processaccording to the present application example. As illustrated in FIG. 38,first of all, the telepresence control unit 80 d of the communicationcontrol device 8 of a communication source performs a process ofconnecting to the telepresence control unit of the communication controldevice of a communication destination in step S503.

Then, the opening degree setting unit 80 c of the communication controldevice 8 sets an opening degree of a shoji in step S506. Details ofcontrol of setting of the opening degree will be described below withreference to FIG. 39.

Subsequently, the telepresence control unit 80 d acquires a capturedimage (picture) and sounds of a user to be transmitted to thecommunication destination through the camera 82 b and the microphonearray 82 c and controls the acquired captured images and sounds to bemasked depending on the set opening degree in step S509. Specifically,the telepresence control unit 80 d may perform processing ofsuperimposing a shoji image on the captured image depending on the setopening degree and transmit the processed image to the communicationdestination or transmit the set opening degree with the captured imageto the communication destination, for example.

Thereafter, the telepresence control unit 80 d controls an image andsounds received from the communication control unit of the communicationdestination to be output in a state in which the image and sounds aremasked depending on the set opening degree through the display part 82 aand the speaker 32 d in step S512.

Then, the telepresence control unit 80 d terminates communication withthe communication destination when communication termination is ordered(“Yes” in S515).

[Control of Setting of Opening Degree]

Next, setting of the opening degree of the shoji illustrated in stepS506 of FIG. 38 will be described detail. FIG. 39 is a flowchartillustrating an operation process of setting the opening degreeaccording to the present application example. As illustrated in FIG. 39,first of all, the opening degree setting unit 80 c of the communicationcontrol device 8 sets the shoji opening degree to a previouslyregistered initial state in step S523.

Then, the emotion value calculation unit 80 b acquires an object ID of acounterpart user in step S526. The object ID of the counterpart user canbe acquired from the communication control device of the communicationdestination through the counterpart user information acquisition unit 80a.

Subsequently, the emotion value calculation unit 80 b acquires aninteraction evaluation value correlated to the object ID of thecounterpart user from the emotion server 2 in step S532 when the objectID of the counterpart user can be acquired (“Yes” in S529).

Thereafter, the emotion value calculation unit 80 b calculates anemotion value on the basis of the acquired interaction evaluation instep S535. Here, calculation of an interaction evaluation value acquiredfrom the emotion server 2 and the emotion value are described in detailwith reference to FIGS. 40 to 41.

FIG. 40 is an illustration of an example of interaction evaluation dataaccording to the present application example. The example of dataillustrated in FIG. 40 is interaction evaluation correlated with theobject ID of a designated counterpart user (here, the user B), acquiredby the emotion value calculation unit 80 b from the emotion server 2.

Subsequently, the emotion value calculation unit 80 b extracts onlyinteraction evaluation of the counterpart user (here, the user B havingobject ID: 5505) for other objects (related objects) from accumulationdata of past interaction evaluation illustrated in FIG. 40 andcalculates emotion values. FIG. 41 is an illustration of an example ofdata used for emotion value calculation and extracted from the exampleof interaction evaluation value data shown in FIG. 40, as describedabove.

Meanwhile, interaction such as “watch/watched/through object/object isthrown, and make phone call,” is sensed through a sensing deviceattached to/mounted on objects and surroundings of objects, as describedabove. For example, when the fact that the user B continuously watchesthe direction in which the TV is located is detected from a result ofanalysis of captured images of camera sensors attached to the TV and theroom and when the fact that the TV operates and outputs pictures in atime period in which the user B is located in the room is detected froma TV operation history, interactions of “the user B is watching theTV”/“the TV is being watched by the user B” are sensed. In addition,when a motion of throwing an object by the user B or separation andmovement of the object from a hand of the user B is detected from aresult of analysis of captured images of camera sensors attached to theTV and the room and when hitting the case body of the TV by the objectis sensed from a vibration sensor attached to the TV, interactions of“throwing the object at the TV”/“being thrown” are sensed.

Further, when a situation in which the user B holds the receiver of thetelephone with a hand is detected from a result of analysis of capturedimages of camera sensors attached to the telephone and the room and whenthe fact that the user B made a phone call is detected from a telephoneoperation history, an interaction of making a phone call is sensed.Furthermore, when the fact that impact was applied to the telephone isdetected by a vibration sensor attached to the telephone and when asound of pulling a cord is detected by a microphone provided in thetelephone, an interaction of making a phone call while pulling the cordis sensed.

Next, an example of calculation of an emotion value Q1 of the user B bythe emotion value calculation unit 80 b will be described. The emotionvalue Q1 is calculated according to the following formula 2, forexample.

$\begin{matrix}{{Q\; 1} = \frac{\Sigma_{n}^{{All}\mspace{11mu}{interaction}\mspace{14mu}{types}}\left( {a_{n} \times \Sigma\; Q_{n}} \right)}{{Total}\mspace{14mu}{number}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{interactions}}} & \left( {{Formula}\mspace{14mu} 2} \right)\end{matrix}$

Here,

a_(n): coefficient for interaction type n, −1≤a_(n)≤1

ΣQ_(n): Sum of evaluations of interaction type n

The above formula 2 represents that the emotion value Q1 is calculatedby multiplying the sum of evaluation values for each interaction type bya coefficient depending on interaction type and dividing the total sumof all interaction types by the total number of interactions. Here,application of interaction evaluation shown in FIG. 41 to the aboveformula 1 is represented in the following formula 3.

$\begin{matrix}{{Q\; 1} = \frac{\begin{matrix}{{a_{watched} \times (0.1) \times a_{thrown} \times \left( {- 0.8} \right)} +} \\{a_{{make}\mspace{14mu} a\mspace{14mu}{phone}\mspace{14mu}{call}} \times \left( {- 0.5} \right)}\end{matrix}}{3}} & \left( {{Formula}\mspace{14mu} 3} \right)\end{matrix}$

In this way, the emotion value calculation unit 80 b can obtain theemotion value Q1 of the user B as represented by the above formula 3.

The calculated emotion value of the counterpart user represents trust ofthe counterpart user. Although a user is relieved even when privacy islower when a communication counterpart is trusted in the telepresencesystem 104, it is possible to appropriately maintain privacy of the userby increasing the privacy when the counterpart is not trusted.Accordingly, utilization of the emotion value representing trust of thecounterpart user is effective.

Referring back to FIG. 39, the opening degree setting unit 80 ccalculates and sets the shoji opening degree corresponding to theprivacy level on the basis of emotion values calculated by the emotionvalue calculation unit 80 b and outputs the set opening degree to thetelepresence controller 80 d in step S538.

Utilization of emotion values in the telepresence system 104 accordingto the present application example has been described above.

3-5. Presence Reproduction System

Next, a presence reproduction system 105 that adds new presentationbased on a relationship between a photographer and a subject usingemotion values when an existing moving image is played will be describedas a fifth application example with reference to FIGS. 42 to 50.

FIG. 42 is an explanatory diagram of the entire configuration of thepresence reproduction system 105 according to the present applicationexample. As illustrated in FIG. 42, the presence reproduction system 105includes a reproduction information generation device 9 that generatespresence reproduction information from acquired content data and aplayback control device 95 that reproduces presence when the contentdata is generated for a viewer (user) when the content data is playedback on the basis of the presence reproduction information. Thereproduction information generation device 9 and the playback controldevice 95 may be connected through a network.

The reproduction information generation device 9 generates abstractedpresence reproduction information for adding new presentation expressinga feeling toward a subject using emotion values corresponding to apredetermined index that indicates a feeling of a content data creator(e.g., photographer) toward the subject and a relationship therebetween.

The playback control device 95 performs device control and generation ofimage effects and sound effects such that presence (context) whencontent data is generated is reproduced when the content data is playedback on the basis of presence reproduction information associated withthe content data. Since the presence reproduction information has beenabstracted, the playback control device 95 can perform a reproductionprocess depending on characteristics of an available device and effectsthat can be generated.

(3-5-1. Configuration and Operation Process of Reproduction InformationGeneration Side)

Next, a configuration and an operation process of the reproductioninformation generation device 9 will be described with reference toFIGS. 43 to 47.

[Configuration of Reproduction Information Generation Device 9]

FIG. 43 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration ofthe reproduction information generation device 9 according to thepresent application example. As illustrated in FIG. 43, the reproductioninformation generation device 9 includes a controller 90, communicationunit 91, a content storage unit 92 and a presence reproductioninformation storage unit 93.

(Controller)

The controller 90 controls each component of the reproductioninformation generation device 9. The controller 90 is realized by amicro-computer including a CPU, a ROM, a RAM and a nonvolatile memory.Specifically, the controller 90 functions as a content analysis unit 90a, a content additional information extraction unit 90 b, a detailedweather and place information search unit 90 c, a subject recognitionunit 90 d, an emotion value acquisition unit 90 e, a presencereproduction information generation unit 90 f, and a storage controller90 g, as illustrated in FIG. 2.

The content analysis unit 90 a performs image analysis and soundanalysis for content data such as a moving image. Content data may bestored in the content storage unit 92 or may be received through thecommunication unit 91. The content analysis unit 90 a includes an imagefeature value extraction unit 901, a vibration feature value extractionunit 902 and a sound feature value extraction unit 903.

The image feature value extraction unit 901 has a function of extractingan image feature value on the basis of image analysis. The vibrationfeature value extraction unit 902 has a function of extracting avibration feature value on the basis of image analysis. In addition, thesound feature value extraction unit 903 has a function of extracting asound feature value on the basis of sound analysis. Such feature valuesmay be extracted for each frame of a moving image or extracted for apredetermined number of frames.

The content additional information extraction unit 90 b extractsadditional information from content data. The additional information isinformation stored when the content data is generated (duringphotography in the case of a moving image) and may be, for example, dateinformation (photographing date in the case of a moving image), timeinformation and position information (latitude, longitude and altitude)of the content data, sensor information acquired when the content datais generated and the like.

The detailed weather and place information search unit 90 c searches fordetailed weather information and detailed place information on a contentgeneration place on the basis of the date, time and place of the contentdata extracted by the content additional information extraction unit 90b. The detailed weather information may be weather, temperature,humidity, wind direction, wind power, rainfall and the like. Thedetailed place information may be a station name, a facility name, aplace name, a building type and the like. The detailed weather and placeinformation search unit 90 c accesses a search server (reversegeo-coding system, event calendar server or the like) on a network tosearch for such detailed weather and place information.

The subject recognition unit 90 d recognizes a subject of the contentdata on the basis of the image feature value extracted by the imagefeature value extraction unit 901 of the content analysis unit 90 a orthe sound feature value extracted by the sound feature value extractionunit 903.

The emotion value acquisition unit 90 e acquires emotion values of thecontent data creator (a photographer in the case of a moving image) andthe subject. Specifically, for the emotion server 2, the emotion valueacquisition unit 90 e requests acquisition of emotion values on thebasis of an object ID of the creator and an object ID of the subject.When evaluation of an interaction between the creator and the subject istransmitted from the emotion server 2, the emotion value acquisitionunit 90 e calculates a relative emotion value (an index indicating acreator's feeling toward the subject) of the creator with respect to thesubject on the basis of the interaction evaluation. Emotion valuecalculation may be performed in the emotion server 2. In this case, theemotion value acquisition unit 90 e acquires the calculated emotionvalue from the emotion server 2 through the communication unit 91.

The object ID of the creator may be embedded in the content data asmetadata and extracted by the content additional information extractionunit 90 b. The object ID of the subject may be embedded in the contentdata as metadata and extracted by the content additional informationextraction unit 90 b. Otherwise, the object ID of the subject may beacquired on the basis of the feature value of the subject recognized bythe subject recognition unit 90 d. Matching of the subject feature tothe object ID may be stored in a storage unit (not shown) of thereproduction information generation device 9 or stored in an object DB22 of the emotion server 2. The emotion value acquisition unit 90 e mayacquire the object ID of the subject by transmitting the subject featurevalue to the emotion server 2.

The presence reproduction information generation unit 90 f generatesinformation for providing presence (context) of the content data to aviewer (user) when the content data is played.

The storage controller 90 g may embed the presence reproductioninformation generated by the presence reproduction informationgeneration unit 90 f in content data stored in the content storage unit92 or store the presence reproduction information in the presencereproduction information storage unit 93 as a separate file inassociation with the content data.

The communication unit 91 transmits/receives data to/from an externaldevice. For example, the communication unit 91 is connected to theemotion server 2 and receives interaction evaluation corresponding to anobject ID. In addition, the communication unit 91 is connected to theplayback control device 95 and transmits content data having presencereproduction information embedded therein or the content data andpresence reproduction information associated therewith.

The content storage unit 92 stores content data. Stored content data maybe data received through the communication unit 91.

The presence reproduction information storage unit 93 stores presencereproduction information generated as separate files in association withcontent data.

[Operation Process of Reproduction Information Generation Device 9]

Next, a reproduction information generation process by the reproductioninformation generation device 9 will be described with reference to FIG.44. FIG. 44 is a flowchart illustrating a reproduction informationgeneration process according to the present application example.

First of all, as shown in FIG. 44, the emotion value acquisition unit 90e acquires a leading frame of the moving image in step S603.

Then, the emotion value acquisition unit 90 e acquires a subjectrecognition result of a target frame from the subject recognition unit90 d in step S606. The subject recognition unit 90 d recognizes subjectsin the frame on the basis of image feature value extracted through imageanalysis of the target frame. For example, subjects S1, S2 and S3 arerecognized through image analysis of a frame 97 of a moving imagegenerated through photography by a photographer P, as illustrated inFIG. 45.

Then, the emotion value acquisition unit 90 e acquires an object IDcorresponding to the subject of the target frame recognized by thesubject recognition unit 90 d in step S609.

When the object ID of the subject cannot be acquired (No in S609), theemotion value acquisition unit 30 e transmits the object ID of thephotographer and attributes of the subject to the emotion server 2 instep S612.

Subsequently, the emotion value acquisition unit 90 e receivescandidates of the object IDs of the subjects from the emotion server 2in step S615. The emotion server 2 searches for objects having historiesof interaction with the photographer for related objects identical orsimilar to the attributes of the subjects, for example, through therelated object search unit 20 d and transmits object IDs of the relatedobjects to the reproduction information generation device 9 ascandidates.

Then, if there are a plurality of object ID candidates transmitted fromthe emotion server 2 (“Yes” in S618), the emotion value acquisition unit90 e selects one object ID corresponding to the subjects from theplurality of candidates in step S621.

Subsequently, the emotion value acquisition unit 90 e transmits theobject IDs of the subjects to the emotion server 2 in step S624.

Thereafter, the emotion value acquisition unit 90 e acquires relativeemotion values between the photographer and the subjects and stores theacquired relative emotion values in association with the positions ofthe subjects in the frame in step S627. The relative emotion valuesbetween the photographer and the subjects may be calculated in theemotion server 2 or calculated by the emotion value acquisition unit 90e on the basis of evaluation of interactions between the photographerand the subjects received from the emotion server 2.

Subsequently, if there are other subjects in the target frame (“Yes” inS630), the process is repeated from step S609. Accordingly, relativeemotion values indicating emotions or feelings of the photographer P(father, object ID: 312039) for the subject S1 (wife, object ID:105384093), the subject S2 (child, object ID: 15122014) and the subjectS3 (toy, object ID: 101960), illustrated in FIG. 14, are acquired, forexample.

Here, calculation of the relative emotion values by the emotion valueacquisition unit 90 e will be described in detail with reference toFIGS. 46 and 47. FIG. 46 is an illustration of an example of data ofinteraction evaluation according to the present embodiment. Interactionevaluation shown in FIG. 46 is transmitted from the emotion server 2 onthe basis of the object ID of the photographer and the object ID of eachsubject designated by the emotion value acquisition unit 90 e.

For example, in the first line of the example of data shown in FIG. 46,evaluation of 0.7 is given to an interaction of “giving an accessory,”performed by the photographer P (object ID: 312039) for the wifecorresponding to the subject S1 (object ID: 105384093) on 24 Dec. 2013.In the second line, evaluation of 1.00 is given to an interaction of“being given the accessory” of the wife corresponding to the subject S1(object ID: 105384093), performed by the photographer P (object ID:312039) on 24 Dec. 2013. In this way, an interaction performed by anobject on one side for an object on the other side may be detected bythe objects of both sides.

Detected interaction types may be storing, physical affection,conversation, playing, etc., as illustrated in FIG. 46, in addition tothe aforementioned giving.

A giving interaction is detected from, for example, a history of use ofa credit card and a purchase history of Internet shopping, contentwritten in mail and on social media, recognition of captured imagesobtained by cameras provided in a room or on an object, recognition ofsounds obtained by microphones provided in a room or on an object, etc.Evaluation of the giving interaction is performed by the evaluation unit20 b of the emotion server 2. For example, the evaluation unit 20 bextracts a spending degree on the basis of a usual purchase history of aperson who gives a present and the ratio of an amount of money for thepresent to his or her income, a positive degree for the present based onrecognition of conversation with a sales person, a sincerity degreebased on a web page view time during Internet shopping and a time frompage change to product selection, etc., assigns predetermined weights tosuch values and normalizes the values to a range of −1.0 to 1.0 toproduce evaluation values.

In addition, a storing interaction is detected from an object position,movement history, recognition of captured images obtained throughcameras provided in a room or on an object, and the like, for example.The evaluation unit 20 b assigns weights to a storage place, humidity ofthe storage place, the amount of dust in the atmosphere and the like andnormalizes the values to a range of −1.0 to 1.0 to produce evaluationvalues.

Furthermore, a physical affection interaction is detected on the basisof determination of touch through human body communication via wearabledevices of both sides, image recognition through cameras, motionpatterns of acceleration sensors of both sides, and the like, forexample. The evaluation unit 20 b assigns weights to various indicesacquired from a degree of smiling obtained through smiling-facerecognition, the sound of laughter obtained through voice recognition,and content of conversation and normalizes the result values to a rangeof −1.0 to 1.0 to produce evaluation values.

In addition, a conversation interaction is detected on the basis ofvoice recognition, voice tone, analysis of content written in mail andon social media (syntactic analysis and semantic analysis) and the like,for example. The evaluation unit 20 b determines a degree ofpositive/negative mode of content of the conversation using words,context, voice tone, etc. included in the conversation and finallynormalizes the result values to a range of −1.0 to 1.0 to produceevaluation values because a total sum of evaluations change according tothe number of words and the content of the conversation.

Furthermore, a playing interaction is detected on the basis of checkingof connection between a near field communication chip attached to a toyand a near field communication chip attached to a child, motions ofacceleration sensors of both sides and the like, for example. When“playing” cannot be recognized through connection checking and motions,if the toy is the object of the other side, the “playing” interaction isrecognized because toys are for playing. The evaluation unit 20 bobtains an evaluation value of the child for the toy on the basis of aresult of measurement of interaction time of both sides and smiling-facedetection and laughter detection through captured images and voice. Inaddition, an evaluation value from the viewpoint of the toy may beobtained by measuring how roughly the toy is handled and whetherhandling is beyond a prescribed mode of use of the toy. Although theevaluation value from the viewpoint of the toy decreases when an infanthandles the toy roughly, it is possible to adjust the evaluation valueat a step of finally obtaining the emotion value by decreasing a weightfactor of the evaluation value from the viewpoint of the toy orcorrecting the evaluation value when the counterpart is an infant.

Subsequently, when relative emotion values indicating emotions andfeelings of the photographer for the respective subjects are calculatedthrough the emotion value acquisition unit 90 e, the emotion valueacquisition unit 90 e extracts only interaction evaluation between thephotographer and each subject from the interaction evaluation data shownin FIG. 46. FIG. 47 is an illustration of an example of data used foremotion value calculation extracted from the example of the interactionevaluation data shown in FIG. 46. As shown in FIG. 47, interactionevaluation between the photographer (object ID: 312039) and the subjectsS1 to S3 (object IDs: 105384093, 15122014 and 101960) is extracted.

The emotion value acquisition unit 90 e obtains the relative emotionvalues between the photographer and the subjects using total sums ofevaluations of the target subjects, total sums obtained by multiplyinginteraction types of the target subjects by weight factors and thenadding the evaluations of the target subjects thereto, or average valuesobtained by dividing the total sums by the numbers of interactions, forexample.

Referring back to FIG. 44, the emotion value acquisition unit 90 ecalculates an emotion value of the entire frame in step S633.Specifically, the emotion value is acquired using a total sum ofrelative emotion values of subjects in the frame or an average obtainedby dividing the total sum by the number of subjects, for example.

Then, the emotion value acquisition unit 90 e stores the emotion values(the relative emotion values of the subjects and the emotion value ofthe entire frame) of the target frame in step S636.

Thereafter, the processing target frame proceeds to the next frame instep S639, and when there is still a new frame (“Yes” in S642), theprocess is repeated from step S606.

Emotion value calculation according to the present embodiment aspresence reproduction information has been described. Although arelative emotion value between each subject and the photographer iscalculated in the embodiment described above, the present disclosure isnot limited thereto and an absolute emotion value of each subject may becalculated or a relative emotion value between subjects may becalculated as necessary. An absolute value of each subject is obtainedusing a total sum of all interaction evaluations of the subject, a totalsum obtained by multiplying interaction types by weight factors and thenadding all evaluations of the target subject thereto, or an averagevalue obtained by dividing the total sum by the number of interactions.Furthermore, a relative emotion value between subjects is obtained usinga total sum of interaction evaluations between the subjects, a total sumobtained by multiplying interaction types by weight factors and thenadding interaction evaluations between the subjects thereto, or anaverage value obtained by dividing the total sum by the number ofinteractions.

(3-5-2. Configuration and Operation Process of Playback Side)

Next, a configuration and an operation process of the playback controldevice 95 will be described with reference to FIGS. 48 to 50. A playbackside may freely decide a reproduction method depending oncharacteristics of devices included in the playback side on the basis ofthe abstracted presence reproduction information generated by thereproduction information generation device 9.

[Configuration of Reproduction Control Device 95]

FIG. 48 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration ofthe playback control device 95 according to the present applicationexample. As illustrated in FIG. 48, the playback control device 95includes a content acquisition unit 951, a presence reproductioninformation acquisition unit 952, a presence reproduction effectspecifying unit 953, an image effect generation unit 954, a sound effectgeneration unit 955, a device controller 956, a decoder unit 957 and acontent output controller 958.

The content acquisition unit 951 acquires content data to be played. Forexample, the content acquisition unit 951 acquires content data from acloud (e.g., the content storage unit 92 of the reproduction informationgeneration device 9).

The presence reproduction information acquisition unit 952 acquirespresence reproduction information corresponding to the content data tobe played. For example, it is assumed that the presence reproductioninformation has been embedded in the content data or has been stored ona cloud as a file separately from the content data.

The presence reproduction effect specifying unit 953 specifies deviceswith which presence (context indicated by the presence reproductioninformation) will be reproduced depending on the presence reproductioninformation acquired by the presence reproduction informationacquisition unit 952 and characteristics of devices provided at theplayback side. For example, a television device that outputs images andsounds, an air-conditioner device, an aroma spraying device, a vibratingdevice, a lighting device, a blowing device and the like may beconsidered as devices included in the playback side.

The image effect generation unit 954 generates image effects forreproducing presence in accordance with an instruction of the presencereproduction effect specifying unit 953.

The sound effect generation unit 955 generates sound effects forreproducing presence in accordance with an instruction of the presencereproduction effect specifying unit 953.

The device controller 956 controls the various devices to providepresence to a user (viewer) in accordance with an instruction of thepresence reproduction effect specifying unit 353.

The decoder unit 957 decodes content data acquired by the contentacquisition unit 951 and outputs the decoded content data to the contentoutput controller 958.

The content output controller 958 outputs the content data decoded bythe decoder unit 957. Specifically, when the content data is a movingimage, for example, the content output controller 958 controls thetelevision device to play the moving image. Furthermore, the contentoutput controller 958 plays the moving image with image effectsgenerated by the image effect generation unit 954 or outputs soundeffects generated by the sound effect generation unit 955.

[Operation Process of Playback Control Device 95]

Next, a playback process by the playback control device 95 will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 49. Presence reproduction informationincludes relative emotion values indicating an emotion and a feeling ofa photographer toward subjects, as described above. It is possible toprovide a new experience of viewing subjects with the feeling of thephotographer with respect to the subjects by performing presentationdepending on the relative emotion values at the playback side.

FIG. 49 is a flowchart illustrating a playback process using emotionvalues according to the present embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 49,first of all, the presence reproduction effect specifying unit 953acquires an emotion value T of the entire current playback frame in stepS653. The emotion value T of the entire playback frame may be obtainedfrom presence reproduction information acquired by the presencereproduction information acquisition unit 952. The emotion value T ofthe entire playback frame corresponds to an emotion value of the entiretarget frame described in step S633 of FIG. 44.

Then, the presence reproduction effect specifying unit 953 determineswhether a difference between an emotion value T′ of the entire previousframe and the emotion value T of the entire current frame is equal to orgreater than a predetermined value in step S656.

Subsequently, when the emotion value difference is equal to or greaterthan the predetermined value (“Yes” in S656), the presence reproductioneffect specifying unit 953 determines whether a minimum device controlapplication time has elapsed in step S659. This is for the purpose ofavoiding switching of device control within a short time.

If the minimum device control application time has elapsed (“Yes” inS659), the presence reproduction effect specifying unit 953 instructsthe device controller 956 to perform device control depending on theemotion value T in step S662. For example, physical presentationdepending on the emotion value, such as generation of vibration,discharge of smoke and change of illumination, is performed.

Then, the presence reproduction effect specifying unit 953 determineswhether a minimum image effect application time has elapsed in stepS665. This is for the purpose of avoiding switching of image effectswithin a short time.

If the minimum image effect application time has elapsed (“Yes” inS665), the presence reproduction effect specifying unit 953 instructsthe image effect generation unit 954 to apply effects of the entireimage depending on the emotion value T in step S668. Effects of theentire image are presentation of brightening the entire tone of theimage or slightly reddening the hue of the image, for example.

Then, the presence reproduction effect specifying unit 953 determineswhether a minimum background music (BGM) application time has elapsed instep S671. This is for the purpose of avoiding switching of BGM within ashort time.

If the minimum BGM application time has elapsed (“Yes” in S671), thepresence reproduction effect specifying unit 953 instructs the soundeffect generation unit 955 to play BGM depending on the emotion value Tin step S674. For example, merry and bright BGM is played when theemotion value T is high, whereas gloomy BGM is played when the emotionvalue T is low.

Then, the presence reproduction effect specifying unit 953 acquires anemotion value of each subject recognized from the current playback frameand the position of each subject in the screen (i.e., position in theframe) in step S677. The emotion value of each subject is a relativeemotion value of the photographer with respect to each subject, which isincluded in the presence reproduction information.

Subsequently, the presence reproduction effect specifying unit 953instructs the image effect generation unit 954 to select image effectsand superimposed images depending on subject types and emotion valuesand instructs the content output controller 958 to display the selectedimage effects at positions corresponding to subjects in step S680. Here,an example of image effects arranged to correspond to subjects dependingon emotion values will be described with reference to FIG. 50.

Depending on relative emotion values of subjects S1, S2 and S3recognized from a frame 98 shown at the left side of FIG. 50, thepresence reproduction effect specifying unit 953 arranges image effectsE1 to E3 respectively corresponding to the subjects S1 to S3 as in aframe 99 shown at the right side of FIG. 50. If the subject S1 is amother, the subject S2 is a child and the subject S3 is a toy, forexample, image effects for family and children are selected. Inaddition, if relative emotion values are high, pleasant and bright imageeffects are selected. Furthermore, arrangement corresponding to asubject may be arrangement of an image effect around the subject suchthat the image effect and the subject do not overlap. Accordingly, afeeling of the photographer when performing photographing, an atmosphereduring photography and the like are represented through newly addedpresentation, thereby reproducing presence during photography.

Although presentation (device control, image effects and BGM) dependingon emotion values is described in S662, S668, S674 and S680, the presentembodiment is not limited thereto, and when an abstract subjectiveexpression of the photographer estimated from the relative emotionvalues of the subjects is described in the presence reproductioninformation, presentation depending on the subjective expression may beperformed.

In addition, when moving image playback does not reach a moving imageend point (“No” in step S683), the process of S653 through S680 isrepeated.

Utilization of emotion values in the presence reproduction system 105according to the present application example has been described above.

4. Conclusion

As described above, in the information processing system according toembodiments of the present disclosure, it is possible to express anemotional value of an object as a numeral value on the basis of aninteraction between objects. Specifically, it is possible to calculatean emotion value associated with an article, an emotion value correlatedto a user and a relative emotion value between the article and the userby measuring interactions between the article and the user and storing ahistory in a server as specific multi-dimensional vector valuesassociated with the article and the user.

Such emotion values can be used in the personal credit informationprovision system 101, the auction system 102, the environment adjustmentsystem 103, the telepresence system 104 and the presence reproductionsystem 105.

The preferred embodiment(s) of the present disclosure has/have beendescribed above with reference to the accompanying drawings, whilst thepresent technology is not limited to the above examples. A personskilled in the art may find various alterations and modifications withinthe scope of the appended claims, and it should be understood that theywill naturally come under the technical scope of the present disclosure.

For example, interaction information may be accumulated and evaluationand emotion values thereof may be calculated whenever the interactioninformation is accumulated or evaluation and emotion values ofaccumulated interaction information may be calculated as necessary.

Further, a computer program for exerting a function of each apparatuscan be prepared in hardware such as the CPU, the ROM, and the RAMincluded in the above apparatus. Further, a computer readable storagemedium in which the computer program is stored is also provided.

Further, the effects described in this specification are merelyillustrative or exemplified effects, and are not limitative. That is,with or in the place of the above effects, the technology according tothe present disclosure may achieve other effects that are clear to thoseskilled in the art from the description of this specification.

Additionally, the present technology may also be configured as below.

(1)

An information processing system including:

a detection unit that detects information related to an interactionbetween a first object and a second object; and

a generation unit that is capable of generating an emotion value of thefirst object and an emotion value of the second object on the basis ofthe information related to the interaction.

(2)

The information processing system according to (1), wherein thegeneration unit is capable of generating an absolute numerical emotionvalue based on information related to interactions between one objectand a plurality of other objects and a relative value based oninformation related to an interaction between the one object and aspecific object.

(3)

The information processing system according to (1) or (2), furtherincluding:

a storage controller that associates the information related to theinteraction with each of the first object and the second object andstores the information in a storage unit,

wherein the generation unit generates an emotion value of a specificobject on the basis of a history of information related to theinteraction and associated with the specific object stored in thestorage unit.

(4)

The information processing system according to any one of (1) to (3),wherein the generation unit is capable of generating the emotion valueof the first object and the emotion value of the second object on thebasis of the information related to the interaction even when the firstobject is a person and the second object is an article.

(5)

The information processing system according to any one of (1) to (4),wherein, when the interaction between the first object and the secondobject has been generated, the detection unit detects informationrelated to a bidirectional interaction.

(6)

The information processing system according to any one of (1) to (5),including:

a credit information provision server that regards the emotion values aspersonal credibility and provides personal credit information.

(7)

The information processing system according to any one of (1) to (6),including:

a commercial transaction server that regards the emotion values as trustof an exhibitor or a value of an exhibited item and provides an emotionvalue of the exhibitor or the exhibited item.

(8)

The information processing system according to any one of (1) to (7),including:

an environment adjustment server that controls environment adjustmentdepending on an emotion value of a target user or an object involvedwith the target user when a surrounding environment of the target useris adjusted by a moving object moving while tracking the target user.

(9)

The information processing system according to any one of (1) to (8),including:

a communication control device that automatically sets a privacy leveldepending on an emotion value of a user of a communication destinationdevice and controls a picture of a user of a communication source deviceto be masked depending on the automatically set privacy level when thepicture of the user of the communication source device is transmitted tothe communication destination device.

(10)

The information processing system according to any one of (1) to (9),including:

a reproduction information generation device that generates abstractedpresence reproduction information on the basis of an emotion value of asubject extracted from content data and controls the generated presencereproduction information to be associated with the content data andstored.

(11)

A control method including:

detecting information related to an interaction between a first objectand a second object; and

being capable of generating an emotion value of the first object and anemotion value of the second object on the basis of the informationrelated to the interaction.

(12)

A storage medium having a program stored therein, the program causing acomputer to function as:

a detection unit that detects information related to an interactionbetween a first object and a second object; and

a generation unit that is capable of generating an emotion value of thefirst object and an emotion value of the second object on the basis ofthe information related to the interaction.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

-   100 information processing system-   101 personal credit information provision system-   102 auction system-   103 environment adjustment system-   104 telepresence system-   105 presence reproduction system-   1 sensing device-   11 sensor-   12 interaction extraction unit-   13 communication unit-   2 emotion server-   20 controller-   20 a interaction storage controller-   20 b evaluation unit-   20 c object management unit-   20 d related object search unit-   20 e emotion value calculation unit-   21 communication unit-   22 object DB-   24 emotion information DB-   3 network-   4 personal credit information provision server-   5 auction server-   6 moving object-   7 environment adjustment server-   8 communication control device-   9 reproduction information generation device-   95 playback control device

1. An information processing system comprising: circuitry configured to:generate an absolute emotion value based on information related tointeractions between one of the plurality of objects and other ones ofthe plurality of objects and a relative emotion value based oninformation related to an interaction between the one of the pluralityof objects and a specific object.
 2. The information processing systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured toassociate information related to another interaction with each of afirst object and a second object and to store the information, whereinan emotional value of the specific object is generated based on ahistory of the information related to the interaction and associatedwith the specific object.
 3. The information processing system accordingto claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to generate afirst emotional value of a first object and a second emotional value ofa second object based on information related to an interaction betweenthe first object and the second object when the first object is a personand the second object is an article.
 4. The information processingsystem according to claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configuredto detect, when an interaction between a first object and a secondobject has been generated, information related to a bidirectionalinteraction.
 5. The information processing system according to claim 1,wherein the circuitry is further configured to regard the absoluteemotional value as a trust of an exhibitor or a value of an exhibiteditem and provide another emotional value of the exhibitor or theexhibited item.
 6. The information processing system according to claim1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to control an environmentadjustment depending on an emotional value of a target user or an objectinvolved with the target user when a surrounding environment of thetarget user is adjusted by a moving object moving while tracking thetarget user.
 7. The information processing system according to claim 1,wherein the circuitry is further configured to automatically set aprivacy level depending on an emotional value of a user of acommunication destination device and control a picture of another userof a communication source device to be masked depending on anautomatically set privacy level when the picture of the other user ofthe communication source device is transmitted to the communicationdestination device.
 8. The information processing system according toclaim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to generateabstracted presence reproduction information based on an emotional valueof a subject extracted from content data and control the generatedabstracted presence reproduction information to be associated with thecontent data and to be stored.
 9. The information processing systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the relative emotional value is acquiredbased on the search conditions designated by a person.
 10. Aninformation processing method, comprising: generating, with circuitry,an absolute emotion value based on information related to interactionsbetween one of the plurality of objects and other ones of the pluralityof objects and a relative emotion value based on information related toan interaction between the one of the plurality of objects and aspecific object.
 11. The information processing method according toclaim 10, further comprising: associating information related to anotherinteraction with each of a first object and a second object and to storethe information, wherein an emotional value of the specific object isgenerated based on a history of the information related to theinteraction and associated with the specific object.
 12. The informationprocessing method according to claim 10, further comprising: generatinga first emotional value of a first object and a second emotional valueof a second object based on information related to an interactionbetween the first object and the second object when the first object isa person and the second object is an article.
 13. The informationprocessing method according to claim 10, further comprising: detecting,when an interaction between a first object and a second object has beengenerated, information related to a bidirectional interaction.
 14. Theinformation processing method according to claim 10, further comprising:regarding the absolute emotional value as a trust of an exhibitor or avalue of an exhibited item and providing another emotional value of theexhibitor or the exhibited item.
 15. The information processing methodaccording to claim 10, further comprising: controlling an environmentadjustment depending on an emotional value of a target user or an objectinvolved with the target user when a surrounding environment of thetarget user is adjusted by a moving object moving while tracking thetarget user.
 16. The information processing method according to claim10, further comprising: automatically setting a privacy level dependingon an emotional value of a user of a communication destination deviceand controlling a picture of another user of a communication sourcedevice to be masked depending on an automatically set privacy level whenthe picture of the other user of the communication source device istransmitted to the communication destination device.
 17. The informationprocessing method according to claim 10, further comprising: generatingabstracted presence reproduction information based on an emotional valueof a subject extracted from content data and controlling the generatedabstracted presence reproduction information to be associated with thecontent data and to be stored.
 18. The information processing methodaccording to claim 10, wherein the relative emotional value is acquiredbased on the search conditions designated by a person.